On April 8, 2010 Presidents of Russia and the Untied States signed the New START Treaty (Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms). The text of the New START Treaty and of the Protocol to the treaty are now available in Russian.

I guess it is inevitable that much of the attention will be focused on missile defense, so it would make sense to deal with the issue right away. Here is what the treaty preamble says (my translation from Russian):

[The Parties sign this treaty] acknowledging the link between strategic offensive and strategic defensive armaments, growing importance of this link in the process of reductions of strategic offensive forces, as well as the fact that the current strategic defensive armaments do not undermine viability and effectiveness of strategic offensive forces of the Parties

This is more or less what was expected, although I would expect a few people wouldn't like the "growing importance" part.

Russia also made a separate Statement of Russian Federation on missile defense (my translation from Russian of the full statement):

Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms that was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010 can work and be viable only in conditions in which there is no qualitative and quantitative improvement of the capabilities of the missile defense systems of the United States of America. Therefore, the extraordinary conditions, mentioned in the Article XIV of the Treaty, include such an improvement of the capabilities of the missile defense systems of the United States of America that would result in a threat to the potential of the strategic nuclear forces of the Russian Federation.

Again, nothing unexpected here. The Soviet Union made a similar statement when the START Treaty was prepared in 1991. As it turned out, it was the United States that left the ABM Treaty, not Russia that left START.

Another potentially controversial issue is conversion of strategic launchers to conventional missions. Here, the treaty notes that the Parties "mindful of the impact of conventionally armed ICBMs and SLBMs on strategic stability" [UPDATED] Which is, of course, true - the treaty does take this into account by limiting launchers.

[UPDATE 04/08/10: Official English versions of the documents are available: the treaty, the protocol]

The treaty preamble on missile defense (official U.S. text of the treaty)

Recognizing the existence of the interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms, that this interrelationship will become more important as strategic nuclear arms are reduced, and that current strategic defensive arms do not undermine the viability and effectiveness of the strategic offensive arms of the Parties]

Official English text of the Russian Statement on missile defense (as published by Russia):

Statement by the Russian Federation on Missile Defence

The Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms signed in Prague on April 8, 2010, can operate and be viable only if the United States of America refrains from developing its missile defence capabilities quantitatively or qualitatively.

Consequently, the exceptional circumstances referred to in Article 14 of the Treaty include increasing the capabilities of the United States of America's missile defence system in such a way that threatens the potential of the strategic nuclear forces of the Russian Federation.