In mid-November, I went to hear Boris Nemtsov speak at Columbia University. A leading opposition figure, he began not by criticizing the Russian government but by stressing the importance of ratifying New START.
A few days later, at the NATO summit in Lisbon, defense ministers from former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries — now NATO members and no friends of Russia — tried to impress upon U.S. journalists how vital it is to ratify this treaty, which will cut both sides’ strategic warheads by roughly 30 percent. But it seems that U.S. Republicans, who cut the Democratic majority in the Senate to a minimum after the November elections, will not allow a vote on its ratification to be held by the end of December, when the lame-duck session ends. When the new Senate convenes in January, Republicans will probably kill the treaty.
