Moscow - The lower house of the Parliament of the Russian Federation, the State Duma, today voted and approved a bill to withdraw ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin recently said that due to the United States' irresponsible approach to global security, the Russian Federation will not ratify the CTBT, but that does not mean it will conduct nuclear tests. A total of 412 MPs voted in favour of the bill's approval today, with no abstentions or votes against, Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported. The State Duma has 450 deputies.
Vyacheslav Volodin recalled that Russia ratified the treaty in 2000, but the United States has not yet done so, adding that "The Russian Federation will do everything to protect its citizens and to maintain global strategic parity,". The TASS news agency recalled that while the Soviet Union conducted its last nuclear test in 1990 and the US two years later, post-Soviet Russia has not yet resorted to a nuclear test. By 1996, when the CTBT saw the light of day, various countries had conducted over 2,000 nuclear tests, including more than 1,000 by the US and over 700 by the USSR. Of the nine nuclear-armed countries, Britain, France and Russia have signed and ratified it. The US, Israel and China have signed but not ratified the treaty. India, Pakistan, and the DPRK have not done either.
(gnews.cz/JAV)
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