The nuclear race between Russia and the United States moved one step closer to uncertainty this Tuesday. The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, has approved in first reading its country’s abrogation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Moscow pledges to carry out tests of weapons of mass destruction only if its rival does so first, thereby saving the card of this show of force against Washington in the midst of the invasion of Ukraine. “We have waited 23 years for the United States to ratify this treaty, but Washington has not done so because of its double standards and irresponsibility towards global security,” said Duma President Vyacheslav Volodin.
The UN General Assembly approved this treaty in 1996, but it did not enter into force. Although signed by 185 countries, it has never been ratified by countries with nuclear capabilities such as the United States, China, Iran, Israel, Egypt, India, Pakistan and North Korea. Since then, only the last three nations have conducted tests with this arsenal. “Washington must understand that its hegemony will lead to no good. “It is necessary to have a dialogue based on mutual respect, the absence of double standards and non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states,” Volodin added, warning that the Kremlin would try to maintain “global strategic parity.”
The president of Russia’s lower house has also linked this move to the wars in Ukraine, Iraq, Libya and the current clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, crises for which he blames Washington. “Today’s decision is a wake-up call, an alarm signal for them,” Volodin added.
Two more votes on the bill must be held before Russia’s withdrawal from the treaty is final. The measure has been proposed by virtually all MPs, who point out that the process will reach its climax in a few days and will later be signed by President Vladimir Putin, who gave the measure the green light during the Kremlin’s annual analysis meeting in the middle. Club Valdái, last October 5th. “It is possible to revoke the ratification, and if we do it, it will be enough,” the president said, addressing a debate that had previously been heated in his own state media: conducting a nuclear test to scare the West to intimidate.
The representative of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, Dmitry Glukhov, said on August 30 that his country would conduct nuclear tests only if the United States did so first. His view was later reiterated by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov: “It all depends on the United States whether Washington goes down the destructive path of nuclear testing, and there are signs that it has carried out such work at the site testing center in Nevada . If this path continues, the position expressed by the President of Russia will be fulfilled and we will be forced to repeat it [el ensayo atómico]“.
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However, long before these warnings, Putin gave instructions to prepare everything for the rehearsals. “The United States is developing new nuclear weapons. The Ministry of Defense and Rosatom [la agencia de la energía nuclear rusa] “You must ensure our preparation for carrying out nuclear tests,” the leader said in his message to the Federal Assembly on February 21. Hours later, state news agency Tass revealed through military sources that the historic nuclear site on the Novaya Zemliá archipelago in the Arctic Circle “has always been and will be prepared to resume testing if necessary.”
On the same day, Putin announced the suspension of another key agreement aimed at curbing the race for weapons of mass destruction, the New Start Treaty. Washington’s demands to inspect its arsenals, which are anchored in the pact, are nothing more than a “theater of the absurd,” said the president.
The US State Department justifies its non-ratification of the treaty that has kept its tests under a moratorium since 1992: “The United States is not required to conduct nuclear explosive tests to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the nuclear forces we employ.” “We will continue to try to “To deter these attacks against the United States and our allies,” he said in a statement, while emphasizing that the signing of the pact by other countries “broadly benefits the security interests of the United States.”
Despite repeated threats from Moscow about the hypothetical use of weapons of mass destruction or an “accident” at the Zaporizhzhia and Chernobyl nuclear power plants since the intensification of the war in Ukraine, Putin has stated that his country does not need to toughen its nuclear doctrine for now: “I see no need for it . “There is no situation today in which anything threatens the existence of the Russian state.”
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