IDEA OF DEPLOYING A NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM LOSES POPULARITY IN USA








WASHINGTON, March 14, 2001. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Arkady Orlov/. Violation of the Russian-American ABM Treaty, which was signed in 1972 to restrain the arms race, would sharply reduce the number of supporters of the creation of a national missile defence (NMD) system in the United States.


	This is evidenced by the results of a public opinion poll which were published in the USA. The poll was carried out on order of the CBS television company and the New York Times.


	According to the poll, the idea of creating an NMD system in the United States on the whole is now supported by 67% of the Americans, while 26% are against it. At the same time when the NMD supporters were asked a question in which the creation of the system was linked to the United States' withdrawal from the 1972 Russian-American Treaty, the number of positive replies sharply dropped and totalled only 33%. At the same time 27% of the original NMD supporters gave negative replies to the paraphrased question.


	The picture was similar when the question about the national missile defence system made mention that many scientists believe that the system would never work. In that case the creation of a new system was again supported by only 35% of its original champions, and 27% declared that they were against the NMD system.