Kuchma Praises Putin For His Statement On Us's Quitting Abm Treaty

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma highly appreciated the statement by Russian President that followed the US decision to start the procedure of quitting the 1972 ABM Treaty. He stressed that everybody had paid attention to "how reserved President Putin was, when giving appraisal to this fact." Kuchma pointed out that the ABM Treaty had played a stabilizing role for many years, but said that "the USA, possibly, had a moral right to do that after September 11, and the change of the global situation that followed." As a whole, Kuchma said, it is the USA and Russia that must end up the problem in 6 months.