New START Suspension Bill Submitted to Russian State Duma, to Be Considered on Wednesday

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The presidential bill to suspend Russia's participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) has been submitted to the State Duma, the Russian parliament's lower house speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, told reporters.

"The Russian president submitted to the State Duma a draft federal law 'On the suspension by the Russian Federation of the operation of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on measures to further reduce and limit strategic offensive weapons,'" Volodin said.

The State Duma will consider the bill on Wednesday and then, it will be submitted to the parliament's upper house, the Federation Council, he added.

The Federation Council may consider the bill on Wednesday as well, if the State Duma approves and submits it, Grigory Karasin, the head of the council's international committee, told Sputnik.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a message to the Federal Assembly that Russia was suspending participation in the Russian-US New START, stressing that the country was not withdrawing from the treaty.

He noted that before returning to the discussion, "we must understand for ourselves what countries such as France and the UK still claim, and how we will take into account their strategic arsenals, that is, the combined strike potential of the [NATO] alliance."