Upper houses of Federal Assembly and US Congress to ratify new start treaty

The ratification of a new treaty on strategic offensive arms reduction by the Federal Assembly (two chamber parliament) of the Russian Federation and the US Congress matters most to Moscow, taking into account the positive development of the Russian-American relations. Chairman of the international committee of the Federation Council (upper chamber of the parliament) Mikhail Margelov sent a letter to US senator Joseph Biden where this information is specified. Joseph Biden, the head of the US Congress Committee for Foreign Relations, backed on Monday Bush's decision to send the treaty on strategic offensive arms to the Senate to be ratified. Mikhail Margelov welcomed the US senator's stance on the issue of the treaty ratification.