Russia passes law to revoke test ban treaty
Russia’s parliament moved swiftly to fulfil the wish of President Vladimir Putin by completing the passage of a bill that shifts Moscow’s legal stance on nuclear testing at a time of acute tension with the West.
The lower house, the State Duma, on Wednesday passed the second and third readings of a bill that revokes Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Both were passed unanimously by 415 votes to zero.
Putin urged the Duma on October 5 to make the change in order to “mirror” the position of the United States, which has signed but never ratified the 1996 treaty.
“We understand our responsibility to our citizens, we are protecting our country. What is happening in the world today is the exclusive fault of the United States,” parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.
Russia says it will not resume testing unless Washington does, but arms control experts are concerned it may be inching towards a test that the West would perceive as a Russian nuclear escalation amid the Ukraine war.
They say a test by either Russia or the United States could prompt the other to do the same, and China, India and Pakistan might then follow, triggering a new global arms race. All are currently observing test moratoriums, and only North Korea has conducted a test involving a nuclear explosion this century.
Russia originally ratified the CTBT in 2000. While it is revoking that step, it has so far said it will remain a signatory to the treaty and continue to supply data to the global monitoring system which alerts the world to any nuclear test.
But when he introduced the bill on Tuesday, parliament speaker Volodin raised the possibility Moscow might withdraw altogether, and said it would keep Washington guessing about its intentions.
“And what we will do next – whether we remain a party to the treaty or not, we will not tell them. We must think about global security, the safety of our citizens and act in their interests,” he said.
The law will now go to the upper house, and to Putin for signing.
Putin said on October 5 that he was aware of calls for Russia to resume nuclear testing but was not ready to say whether Moscow should do so or not.
In February, he said Russia must “make everything ready” to conduct a test in case Washington did so. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Russia’s testing ground in the remote northern archipelago of Novaya Zemlya in August.
CNN published satellite images last month showing Russia, the United States and China have all built new facilities at their nuclear test sites in recent years.
Russia’s shift on the CTBT follows its suspension earlier this year of New START, the last remaining bilateral nuclear treaty with the United States, which limits the number of strategic warheads each side can deploy.
Post-Soviet Russia has never carried out a nuclear test. The Soviet Union last tested in 1990 and the United States in 1992.
(Reuters)