This was also confirmed by Yushenkov who said that participants in the discussion "expressed various points of view on a final document about the Committee meeting but no final statement was adopted". He said in this connection that reports that had appeared in the West about the Committee's some agreed-upon stand on the issue and, still less, that of the entire State Duma were simply untactful. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Demurin, in an ITAR-TASS interview on Friday, emphasised the importance of the State Duma ratification of the START-2 Treaty "in the form in which it had been fixed with the U.S."
Commenting on reports that Russian parliamentarians are ostensibly prepared to ratify the Treaty, provided some changes are introduced to its text, the diplomat said the Treaty in its present form "is based on a sound analysis of the objective possibilities and strategic interests of Russia".
"Presenting the START-2 Treaty to the Federal Assembly for ratification, we proceed from its being directly interconnected with the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Defence Treaty," the diplomat said.
In response to a request from an ITAR-TASS correspondent to comment on the MPs' intention to link ratification of the START-2 Treaty with U.S. compliance with the ABM Treaty, Demurin pointed out that "this connection is reflected in the START-2 Treaty itself".
"The Treaty reflects a thoroughly adjusted balance of interests achieved on the basis of mutual compromises," Demurin said. He recalled that this had been confirmed by President Boris Yeltsin during his recent meeting with U.S. President Bill Clinton.