Medvedev Signs 'New START' Treaty Ratification

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The United States and Russia today signed a landmark disarmament treaty in Prague restricting the number of nuclear weapons each country holds. The arms deal will reduce their stockpiles by about a third from current levels.

WATCH: The Russian and U.S. presidents sign the nuclear arms treaty at Prague Castle in April 2010. (Reuters video)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed ratification of a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States.

The treaty, known as New START, limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200, and also re-establishes a system for monitoring that ended in December 2009 with the expiration of a previous arms deal.

Presidents Barack Obama and Medvedev originally signed the documents in April.

The U.S. Senate ratified New START, shorthand for the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, in December.

The pact will take effect when the ratification documents are exchanged by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

compiled from agency reports