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On May 24, 2002, President Bush and Russia's President Putin signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (known as the Treaty of Moscow) that will reduce strategic nuclear weapons to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by December 31, 2012. Russia convinced the United States to sign a legally binding treaty, but the United States rejected any limits and counting rules that would require the elimination of delivery vehicles and warheads removed from service. It wanted the flexibility to reduce its forces at its own pace, and to restore warheads to deployed forces if conditions warranted. Russian officials have hailed the success of Russia's diplomacy in convincing the United States to sign a legally binding Treaty that casts Russia as an equal partner in the arms control process.

This report is on Nuclear Arms Control: The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty.

This report provides background information on terrorist attacks in Russia's North Caucasus that includes the formerly breakaway Chechnya and other ethnic-based regions, which appeared to increase substantially in 2007-2009. The report discusses impacts of the August 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict and the recent development in the Northern Caucasus.

This report provides a brief overview of the United States' and Russia's objectives when they began discussions on the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty and a summary of how they resolved these differences when concluding the negotiations. It then describes the key provisions in the Treaty, offers a brief assessment of how each nation fared in achieving its objectives when negotiating this agreement, and a summary of reaction from U.S. and Russian commentators.