Head of the international watchdog on nuclear tests on Friday expressed concerns about Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s ‘intentions’ after he threatened that Moscow will withdraw its ratification of a global ban on testing.
Russia’s envoy to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Mikhail Ulyanov, said earlier yesterday that Moscow is prepared to reverse its ratification of a 1996 treaty that banned the testing of nuclear weapons.
Taking to his social media, Ulyanov wrote that Russia ‘plans to revoke ratification [which took place in the year 2000] of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty [CTBT].’ “The aim is to be on equal footing with the US who signed the treaty, but didn’t ratify it. Revocation doesn’t mean the intention to resume nuclear tests,” he said.
US State Department said that it was ‘disturbed’ by the move. “We are disturbed by the comments of Ambassador Ulyanov in Vienna today,” a US State Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Robert Floyd, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) said that it would be extremely ‘concerning and deeply unfortunate’ if Russia withdrew from the global ban on nuclear testing, according to reports. While he abstained from making direct references to Putin’s remarks, Floyd cited the ‘recent media reports’ and expressed worry that the Russian nuclear test, if done, will be the first ever since 1990. Reversing the ban would be disastrous for global security as it tatters the arrangements on the non-proliferation in place since the Cold War.
“It would be concerning and deeply unfortunate if any state signatory were to reconsider its ratification of the CTBT,” Floyd was quoted as saying.
Putin hints at possible withdrawal from ratification of 1996 CTBT pact
Since Russia launched an all-out invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, several lawmakers have made references to the former Soviet Union’s large stockpile of nuclear arsenal. On Thursday, as he made a state speech in Sochi, Putin said that he was “not ready to say now whether we really need or don’t need to conduct tests” hinting at possible withdrawal from the treaty that bans the testing of nukes.
“As a rule, experts say, with a new weapon – you need to make sure that the special warhead will work without failures,” Putin reportedly said. In his justification for the move, the Russian leader iterated that he would revoke the ratification of the 1996 CTBT agreement on a worldwide test ban in a retaliatory move to the United States.
Whether Russia’s withdrawal from the ratification of the CTBT is necessary and should be done soon will be decided and the move will be ‘swift,’ Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said. A close aide of Putin, head of the Kurchatov Institute research centre, Mikhail Kovalchuk, meanwhile said that Moscow could resume testing at Novaya Zemlya, an Arctic archipelago.
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