The extension may also ease Russia's concerns about the demarcation because it will now have a decade before destroying its weapons to see what theater defenses the United States actually deploys and whether the Republican push for deployment of a national missile defense is successful. Nevertheless, Russia resisted the modifications until the end. Those few Duma members knowledgeable about the ABM Treaty are downplaying the significance of the treaty modifications to get start II ratified, allowing Yeltsin to sell the modifications as ones that will preserve rather than weaken the ABM Treaty. If Russia ratifies start II, Clinton will bring the ABM Treaty modifications to the Senate for ratification in a package with the start II extension. The outcome is unclear.
Congressional hawks object to the prohibition on space-based interceptors, among other things.
However, there will be considerable pressure for the Senate to ratify the package to keep start reductions on track. It is unlikely that the negotiations on high-speed theater defenses will resume soon. One of the restrictions Russia was seeking was a prohibition on space-based sensors, such as the Space and Missile Tracking System the United States plans to deploy sometime in the next decade. This constellation of satellites would allow thaad and Navy Theater Wide interceptors to defend very large areas, making a defense of the continental United States against Russian strategic missiles more feasible. But restricting space-based tracking systems is unacceptable to the United States.