Commenting on the U.S. Senate decision taken on Wednesday considerably to increase appropriations in the forthcoming fiscal year for ABM development efforts, Surikov emphasised that such a turn of events "prompts our country to refrain from ratifying the START-2 Treaty and reconsider some provisions under the START-1 one."
The U.S. plans to develop a "theatre ABM system" and in this connection change the 1972 ABM Treaty provisions are, in the expert's view, yet another attempt to push through Ronald Reagan's old-standing Strategic Defence Initiative idea. This poses a threat to strategic stability in the world and, specifically, provokes China and other "small nuclear countries" to build-up their nuclear missile forces.
Russia should not agree to the introduction of any changes to the text of the Treaty, changes which could provide ABM tactical systems with characteristics which would make it possible to use them for the purposes of strategic ABM defence.
Surikov is of the opinion that the Russian parliament has every right to state that any changes or addenda to the 1972 ABM Treaty should go through a ratification procedure in Russia's Federal Assembly without fail.