On the basis of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START agreement) of 1991 the governments of the US and Russian Federation signed a framework agreement in July 1992 concerning Co-operative Threat Reduction (CTR). This led in turn to the signing, in August 1993, of an agreement for the Elimination of Strategic Offensive Arms. Responsibility for the implementation of this agreement was given to the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation in 1997. Under this agreement, disposal of the agreed number of the Russian Navy's strategic nuclear submarines (ie those equipped with ballistic nuclear missiles) was largely completed by 2003 with the help of US funding. However, a larger proportion of the Russian submarine fleet is made up of general purpose rather than strategic nuclear submarines and increasing numbers of these have been decommissioned from the Navy but without the funding being available for their dismantling.
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