A delicate balancing act
The on-going conflict in Ukraine has sent shockwaves through global energy markets, impacting everything from international relations to commodity prices.
The speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower chamber declared on Tuesday that Russia is rescinding its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty due to the US’s reckless approach to international security.
Vladimir Putin stated he was not ready to declare whether or not Russia would resume nuclear testing. Earlier this month, Putin proposed that Russia reverse ratification of the 1996 deal because the US had not approved it.
Before a discussion and legislative vote on rescinding ratification, Speaker of the Duma Vyacheslav Volodin declared, “We are withdrawing the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the interests of ensuring the security of our country.”
Washington had not ratified the treaty, according to Volodin, despite the fact that Russia had done so in 2000 due to its “irresponsible attitude to global security issues”.
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“The Russian Federation will do everything to protect its citizens and to maintain global strategic parity,” Volodin declared.
Notwithstanding its revocation of ratification, Russia will stay a signatory to the treaty and carry on working with the global monitoring system, which notifies all nations of any tests.
A fresh nuclear arms race between the major countries that put an end to nuclear testing in the years after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 may be signalled by the restart of nuclear testing by China, Russia, or the US.
Many scientists and activists believed that the Cold War’s nuclear bomb testing was a foolish experiment that may wipe out humanity and poison the earth for hundreds of thousands of years.
However, the conflict in Ukraine has brought Moscow and Washington’s tensions to their greatest point since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, at the same time as China is attempting to bolster its nuclear arsenal in line with its growing power status.
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