Russia is pushing ahead with plans to resume nuclear weapons tests. US President Biden questioned in a private home about classified documents

With its planned withdrawal from another international security treaty, Russia is setting the course for a possible resumption of nuclear weapons tests.

A mechanism must be established within a week to revoke Russia’s ratification of the Global Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).This was said by MP Adalby Shkhagoshev on Tuesday to the Russian news agency Interfax. Russia is thus creating conditions comparable to those in the US, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Moscow.

The US has never ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and could test nuclear weapons at any time. The head of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, announced last week that the CTBT ratification would be withdrawn. This should be decided by the State Duma, which is controlled by the Kremlin.

The Kremlin had said Russia’s withdrawal from the treaty did not mean the nuclear power would immediately start testing nuclear weapons. However, President Vladimir Putin had said that Moscow, like Washington, should also be able to carry out these tests. Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov emphasized that Russia would only test nuclear weapons if the US did so too.

Russia has now waited 23 years for something to happen in the US, that was enough time, Ryabkov said. “We have no choice but to adjust our position here.” Putin recently made it clear that Russia must prepare its testing sites for the resumption of such tests.

Russia repeatedly tests nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles and a variety of other new weapons, albeit without nuclear warheads. Nuclear weapons tests would then be possible again in the future. In the conflict with the US, Russia has recently withdrawn from several disarmament treaties.

The Test Ban Treaty was adopted in 1996 to curb the further development of nuclear weapons. The global testing ban is not yet in effect, but since the 1990s all states except North Korea have adhered to it. The CTBT organization in Vienna operates a global network of measuring stations that can detect nuclear tests using pressure waves and chemical and nuclear traces. Russia wants to continue supplying data from its own 32 stations. (saw/sda/dpa)