Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday said Moscow and Washington should ratify the new strategic arms reduction treaty (START) simultaneously. Medvedev told parliamentary leaders that a situation which once happened during the Soviet period when the Soviet Union ratified these documents and the US. cannot be allowed. <br/><br/>The president also spoke positively of the current negotiations between the two countries. He said quite serious steps have been taken forward and have brought positions closer together to a considerable extent. Russia and the United States have exerted intense efforts trying to clinch a deal on a replacement document to the START-1 that expired December 5, 2009. <br/><br/>The START-1, signed in 1991 between the Soviet Union and the United States, obliged both sides to reduce the number of their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to 1,600.