Russia is revoking ratification of nuclear test ban treaty – speaker

The United States’ disregard for international security has led to Russia withdrawing its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament on Tuesday.

In response to proposals by certain Russian security experts and parliamentarians to test a nuclear weapon as a message to the West, President Vladimir Putin stated on October 5 that he was not yet prepared to decide whether or not Russia should resume nuclear testing.

Speaker of the Duma Vyacheslav Volodin declared, “In the interests of ensuring the security of our country, we are withdrawing the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,” before a discussion and parliamentary vote on the matter.

Volodin said that whereas Washington had not ratified the 1996 pact due to its “irresponsible attitude toward global security issues,” Russia had done so in 2000.

“The Russian Federation will do everything to protect its citizens and to maintain global strategic parity,” Volodin stated.

The Test Ban Treaty Organization and the worldwide monitoring system, which warns the world of any nuclear test, would still accept Russia as a signatory even though it is withdrawing ratification. Russia would also continue to collaborate with both of these organizations.

Although arms control specialists are concerned that Russia may be edging closer to restarting nuclear testing, Russian authorities insist that the withdrawal of ratification does not indicate that Russia would conduct nuclear weapons tests and is only aligning itself with American policy.

Post-Soviet: Russia has never conducted a nuclear test. The United States last conducted a test in 1992, and the Soviet Union in 1990.

The United States and the Soviet Union carried out 1,032 and 715 of the more than 2,000 nuclear tests that took place between 1945 and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), respectively, according to the United Nations.

BRINKMANSHIP
A new nuclear arms race between the major nations, which suspended nuclear testing years after the Soviet Union’s fall in 1991, might begin if Russia, the United States, or China resume nuclear testing.

The scale of nuclear bomb testing during the Cold War, in the eyes of many scientists and activists, demonstrated the foolishness of nuclear brinksmanship, which may ultimately lead to the extinction of humanity and the contamination of the earth for tens of thousands of years.

However, the conflict in Ukraine has heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington to their highest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962; at the same time, China is trying to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal to reflect its role as a rising superpower.

By boosting its conventional troops, fortifying alliances, and advancing its nuclear weapons modernization program, Washington must get ready for potential simultaneous battles with Moscow and Beijing, according to a bipartisan commission convened by the US Congress on Thursday.

Putin has dismissed that talk as nonsense and stated that he does not need to alter Russia’s nuclear doctrine. It states that Russia would only order a nuclear strike if it were attacked or if an attack with conventional weapons threatened the state’s existence.

On October 5, Putin stated, “I hear requests to resume nuclear weapon testing. “I am not ready to say whether we need to conduct tests, but it is theoretically possible to behave in the same way as the United States.”

Ten nuclear tests have occurred since the CTBT. According to the United Nations, North Korea conducted tests in 2006, 2009, and 2013, in 2016 and 2017, and two in 1998 in India and two in Pakistan.