Russian parliament rejects nuclear test ban amid rising tension

Russia’s parliament moved swiftly to fulfil the wish of President Vladimir Putin by completing the passage of a bill that shifts Moscow’s legal stance on nuclear testing at a time of acute tension with the West.

The lower house, the State Duma, on Wednesday passed the second and third readings of a bill that revokes Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Both were passed unanimously by 415 votes to zero.

Putin urged the Duma on October 5 to make the change to “mirror” the position of the US, which has signed but never ratified the 1996 treaty.

“We understand our responsibility to our citizens, we are protecting our country. What is happening in the world today is the exclusive fault of the US,” parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.

Stakes rising

Russia says it will not resume testing unless Washington does, but arms control experts are concerned it may be inching towards a test that the West would perceive as a Russian nuclear escalation amid the Ukraine war.

They say a test by either Russia or the US could prompt the other to do the same. China, India and Pakistan might then follow, triggering a new global arms race. All are now observing test moratoriums, and only North Korea has conducted a test involving a nuclear explosion this century.

Russia originally ratified the CTBT in 2000. While it is revoking that step, it has so far said it will remain a signatory to the treaty and continue to supply data to the global monitoring system, which alerts the world to any nuclear test.

But when he introduced the bill on Tuesday, Volodin raised the possibility Moscow might withdraw altogether, and said it would keep Washington guessing about its intentions.

“And what we will do next — whether we remain a party to the treaty or not — we will not tell them. We must think about global security, the safety of our citizens and act in their interests,” he said.

The law will now go to the upper house and to Putin for signing.

Putin said on October 5 that he was aware of calls for Russia to resume nuclear testing but was not ready to say whether Moscow should do so or not.

In February, he said Russia must “make everything ready” to conduct a test in case Washington did so. Defence minister Sergei Shoigu visited Russia’s testing ground in the remote northern archipelago of Novaya Zemlya in August.

CNN published satellite images in September showing Russia, the US and China have all built new facilities at their nuclear test sites in recent years.

Russia’s shift on the CTBT follows its suspension earlier in 2023 of New START, the last remaining bilateral nuclear treaty with the US, which limits the number of strategic warheads each side can deploy.

Experts at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said both steps may be intended by Putin “to generate alarm and uncertainty among states supporting Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s illegal invasion”.

They said the CTBT move “weakens international stability and diminishes humanity’s prospects of avoiding a new nuclear arms race”.

But they added: “In this instance, it is difficult for the US to go far in criticising Putin’s announcement and Russia’s potential withdrawal from the CTBT since the US has itself failed to ratify the treaty and become a party to it in the 27 years since first signing.”

Melissa Parke, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, called Russia’s action irresponsible. She said treaties such as the CTBT “are critical to making sure nuclear testing, which has harmed people’s health and caused widespread radioactive contamination, is not resumed”.

Post-Soviet Russia has never carried out a nuclear test. The Soviet Union last tested in 1990 and the US in 1992.

Reuters