This Monday afternoon, the leaders of the Russian parliament are deliberating whether to revoke the ratification of a treaty on the prohibition of nuclear tests.
According to the British broadcaster Sky News, Putin mentioned on Thursday that his country could theoretically undo the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), as reported by the German news website n-tv.de. This treaty was introduced in 1996 to limit the further development of nuclear weapons. Although the global test ban has not yet entered into force, all states except North Korea have adhered to it since the 1990s.
The CTBT prohibits any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion, both underground, underwater, and in the atmosphere, explains the German Foreign Office. It is generally believed that the ban covers any type of explosive nuclear chain reaction, even the smallest (“zero-yield”). Excluded are subcritical experiments where no explosive chain reaction occurs, as well as computer simulations.
Image: Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin in Ryazan Oblast (2022-10-20) 06, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)
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