Putin signs Russia’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty – Prime Time Zone

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with the crew of the Alyosha T-80 tank that destroyed a Ukrainian armored convoy in the direction of Zaporizhya during the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

Russian President, Russian President Vladimir PutinOn Thursday 2, he signed the law revoking the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), with the conflict in Ukraine and the crisis with the West as a backdrop. The 1996 treaty prohibits all testing using… nuclear weaponsAlthough it never entered into force because some key countries – including the United States and China – never ratified it. Putin said in early October that his country could revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in response to the fact that the United States had never ratified it.

He added: “I am not ready to say whether we should resume testing or not,” praising the development of new missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. Since the beginning 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 forces for a retaliatory “large-scale nuclear strike.”

The Russian Parliament approved a draft law to abolish the treaty last month. Although it never entered into force, the agreement has been ratified by 178 countries, including nuclear powers 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 ratification by major nuclear powers. The Russian Parliament ratified the agreement in June 2000, six months after Putin assumed the presidency.

*With information from Agence France-Presse