Editing START II (section)

==Negotiations==
The historic agreement started on 17 June 1992 with the signing of a joint understanding by both presidents. The official signing of the treaty by the presidents took place on 3 January 1993. It was ratified by the [[US Senate]] on 26 January 1996 with a vote of 87–4. However, Russian ratification was stalled in the [[State Duma]] for many years. It was postponed many times to protest American military actions in [[bombing of Iraq (1998)|Iraq]] and in [[Kosovo War|Kosovo]] and to oppose the [[expansion of NATO]] in [[Eastern Europe]]. The treaty became less relevant as the years passed, and both sides started to lose interest in it.

On 14 April 2000, the Russian Duma finally ratified the treaty with some conditions. Specifically, these conditions were that the US would continue to uphold the [[ABM Treaty]],<ref name=pacer/> and that the US Senate would ratify a September 1997 [[addendum]] to START II that included agreed statements on the demarcation of [[anti-ballistic missile|strategic and tactical missile defenses]]. The US Senate never ratified the addendum, as a faction of Republicans led by [[Jesse Helms]] opposed any limits on American anti-ballistic missile systems.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Missile Defense Systems of George W. Bush|author=Richard Dean Burns|pages=62–63|year=2010|publisher=Praegar Security International}}</ref> As a result, START II never entered into force.<ref name=pacer/>