President-elect Vladimir Putin notched up another victory yesterday when the lower house of the Russian parliament ratified the global nuclear test ban treaty ahead of the United States.
The State Duma's ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) came exactly one week after its approval of another key weapons agreement - the START-2 nuclear arms reduction pact with Washington - after years of delays.
Mr Putin also won the backing of Russia's Security Council for a new national military doctrine which upgrades the role of nuclear weapons. The Duma voted in closed session by 298 to 74 in favour of the CTBT. The result underscored Mr Putin's control of the chamber, in contrast to the wrangling which marked relations between it and Mr Boris Yeltsin. The treaty now goes to the Federation Council, Russia's pro-Kremlin upper house of parliament, for approval.
"The treaty has been ratified by an overwhelming majority. This is an important step towards preventing the spread of nuclear weapons," said the Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, who travels to the US this weekend for a UN conference on halting the spread of nuclear weapons.
Britain, one of the world's five official nuclear powers, hailed the Duma vote, which was also welcomed by Japan.
Russia's Communists and their leftwing allies had expressed concern about the test ban treaty, which has still not been ratified by the US, China and other key states.
"Lately, there has been a deliberate movement aimed at depriving Russia of its status as a nuclear power," a Communist deputy told the Duma.
Another Communist deputy said he thought Mr Putin's push to ratify both START-2 and the test ban treaty was linked to his efforts to divert attention from Russia's military campaign in Chechnya.
The head of Russia's state ammunition agency said Moscow would need 100 years to destroy its chemical weapon stockpile. Russia has 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, the world's largest stockpile.
Mr Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies yesterday as saying Moscow had received proposals from the Chechen leader, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, on a peace plan and had responded to them with its own amendments. Amid hints that both sides might be searching for a compromise to end the fighting, Mr Maskhadov said in an interview that he had ordered his men to begin a ceasefire.
Russian coastguards said they fired at a Japanese fishing boat yesterday and seized the vessel after it refused to stop for checks and tried to escape. Itar-Tass news agency said the boat had been escorted to the military base of Malokurilskoye on Shikotan Island, one of four islands of the Southern Kuriles which are claimed by Japan.