Russian President Vladimir Putin signed yesterday, Thursday, 2, the law that revokes the ratification of the Total Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), with the conflict in Ukraine and the crisis with the West as a background
The 1996 treaty bans all nuclear weapons testing, although it never came into force because some key countries – including the United States and China – never ratified it, according to Agence France Press.
Putin said in early October that his country could revoke its ratification of the CTBT in response to the fact that the United States had never ratified it. “I’m not ready to say whether or not we should resume testing,” he added, while praising the development of new missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, senior Russian officials have threatened to use nuclear weapons on several occasions, although Putin has shown caution on other occasions. Last week, the Russian president oversaw ballistic missile exercises to prepare his troops for a retaliatory “massive nuclear strike.”
The bill to revoke the treaty was approved by the Russian Parliament last month. Although it never came into force, the agreement was ratified by 178 countries, including nuclear powers such as France and the United Kingdom, and has symbolic value.
Its supporters say it establishes an international norm against nuclear weapons testing, but its critics say the deal’s potential remains unrealized without ratifications from the major nuclear powers. The Russian Parliament ratified the agreement in June 2000, six months after Putin assumed the presidency.
