The moratorium will remain in effect as long as the US does not conduct “large-scale testing”.
Russia says it will continue to refrain from testing nuclear weapons despite withdrawing from a ban treaty. Moscow intends to “maintain the moratorium that was introduced more than 30 years ago,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Friday. However, if the US carried out “large-scale tests”, Russia would be “forced to do the same”, the ministry warned.
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) provides for an end to all nuclear weapons testing and was submitted for signature in 1996. However, it has not yet entered into force because it has not been ratified by a sufficient number of countries. The nuclear powers USA and China, among others, have not yet ratified the CTBT.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law revoking Russia’s ratification of the treaty. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called this a “significant step in the wrong direction” that “takes us further away from the treaty’s entry into force, rather than closer to it.”
After the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Putin repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons. Last week, he took part in a ballistic missile test that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu described as an exercise for a “massive” retaliatory nuclear strike against an unspecified enemy.
In early October, the Russian leader said he was “not ready to say” whether Russia would resume its nuclear weapons tests.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) has called on Russia to join the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, including allowing the use of monitoring stations that can detect even small-scale explosions. (APA/AFP)