Upper house of Russian parliament ratifies new START extension

Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, voted on Wednesday to ratify an extension of the New START nuclear arms control treaty, a move towards preserving the last major pact of its kind between Russia and the United States.

The Kremlin on Tuesday said the two countries had struck a deal to extend the pact, signed in 2010 and set to expire next week, which limits the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers that Russia and the United States can deploy.

The lower house, the State Duma, earlier voted to ratify the extension.