Half of Russians Unaware of New START

By The Moscow Times

May 13, 2010

More than half of Russians have never heard of the landmark New START arms reduction agreement signed by the presidents of Russia and the United States last month, the state-run VTsIOM polling agency said Wednesday.

A total of 52 percent of respondents in a new national survey were unaware of the treaty, while 37 percent had heard of it and only 8 percent knew that the document aimed to cut both countries' nuclear arsenals, VTsIOM said.

Most of the Russians ignorant of the New START support the ruling United Russia party, the survey said.

The poll of 1,600 people has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

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