Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Hopes Russian Parliament will Ratify SOR Treaty - 7 March, 2003

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Georgy Mamedov hopes that the ratification of the treaty on strategic offensive reductions (SOR) will take place in the Russian parliament, too, he told journalists at a briefing Friday.

"I hope that the deputies will make a correct choice by backing this treaty", the Deputy Minister said. According to him, now the government of Russia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "are completing active preparations for the work with the Federal Assembly to ratify the strategic offensive reductions treaty".

Asked by RIA Novosti who will persuade the Russian parliamentarians to ratify this document, Mamedov said that, in accordance with the instructions given by the president of the Russian Federation, this will be done by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence - Igor Ivanov and Sergei Ivanov.

Answering the question about the agreement between the presidents of Russia and the USA to synchronize the process of the ratification of the treaty on strategic offensive reductions, Mamedov pointed out that Russia is living in conditions of democracy. "We have division of the branches of power, and executive power cannot dictate its terms to legislative power", he noted.

Georgy Mamedov explained that the accord on synchronization meant that the presidents of Russia and the USA would act in a certain direction so that the two countries' parliaments would ratify this treaty.

"I hope that we will very soon convince the State Duma to back the SOR treaty". Mamedov recalled that, speaking of the synchronization, both the U.S. and Russian presidents made a reservation to the effect that they would try to ratify the treaty simultaneously as far as the situation in the parliaments would allow them to do so.