ABSTRACT
Developments within the USSR after 1985, which culminated in the failed coup of 1991, have opened unexpected opportunities for a profound revision of the hostile relations between Moscow and the West, and in particular between Moscow and the United States. Among the uncertainties related to arms control is the future of the START-I Treaty and the follow-on START-II Treaty. After the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in 1991, the leaders of the four largest republics acted to address the nuclear issue. In the Alma-Ata Agreement, signed on 1991. The United States and USSR by the mid-1960s, and, on the other, a realization of the great political, strategic and technical obstacles on the way to complete nuclear disarmament. Moscow adhered to a very tough stance on the issue of Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) defence. The narrow variant would consist basically of preserving the ABM Treaty intact and concluding a protocol on permitted parameters of Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile (ATBM) systems.
