President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday welcomed the U.S. Senate's decision to ratify a landmark U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control treaty and voiced hope that Russian legislators will follow suit, as AP reported. Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said that when Medvedev signed the New START treaty with President Barack Obama, they agreed that the ratification process should be conducted simultaneously. Legislators in the Kremlin-controlled parliament had said before the Senate ratified the pact on Wednesday that they would approve the treaty quickly after it's ratified in the U.S. Timakova said, however, that the Russian parliament would need to study the Senate's ratification resolution before voting. Lower house speaker Boris Gryzlov, however, told reporters Thursday that the Senate's ratification resolution apparently contained some conditions and the legislators need to carefully study the text before making their decision. He added that the State Duma may ratify the pact Friday if the text of the treaty itself remained unchanged. «If these conditions don't change the text of the treaty, we may pass a ratification bill even tomorrow,» Gryzlov said. He said that the house would need more time if it finds any changes in the body of the treaty.
