Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill revoking Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) into law, state-run news agency TASS reported on Thursday.
The CTBT, which bans all nuclear testing for both military or civilian purposes, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996. It listed 44 countries that had to ratify the treaty in order for it to come into force. While Russia ratified the treaty in 2000, neither the United States nor China ever did.
Deputies introduced the bill shortly after Putin suggested last month that Russia “could theoretically” revoke its ratification of the treaty. His comment came after he announced that Russia had conducted “another successful test of the Burevestnik,” an intercontinental nuclear cruise missile.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed the bill revoking ratification of the CTBT on 18 October. The upper house, the Federation Council, voted to approve the bill on 25 October.
“For 23 years, we have waited for the United States to ratify the CTBT”, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, wrote last month. ”But Washington hasn’t done so due to its double standards and irresponsible attitude to global security issues.”