The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law on the withdrawal of ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty.
This is reported by the Russian media "Nastoyashe Vremya".
The draft law was submitted to the State Duma on October 13 after Putinʼs statement that it is possible to think about withdrawing the ratification of the treaty, because the United States did not ratify it.
The press secretary of the Kremlin Dmytro Peskov previously stated that the adoption of such a law would not mean that the Russian Federation would start conducting nuclear tests. However, in February 2023, Putin ordered the preparation of a test site for nuclear weapons on Novaya Zemlya, if the United States did it first.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was adopted at the 50th session of the UN General Assembly in September 1996. It was signed by 177 states, but ratified by 138.
- The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual report that nuclear-armed countries are modernizing and building up their arsenals. The USA and Russia have almost 90% of the nuclear weapons in the world. Their combined 2 000 warheads are in a state of increased combat capability.