Russia's parliament took the first step on Tuesday towards revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and its top lawmaker hinted it might go further by abandoning the pact altogether.

Russia’s parliament took the first step on Tuesday towards revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and its top lawmaker hinted it might go further by abandoning the pact altogether.

Parliament’s lower house, the Duma, voted by 412 to zero, with no abstentions, to approve the withdrawal of the ratification in the first of three readings.

Russia says the aim is to restore parity with the United States, which has signed but never ratified the 1996 treaty, and that it will not resume testing unless Washington does.

But arms control experts are concerned that Russia may be inching towards a test that would be perceived as a threatening signal by the West at a time of heightened confrontation over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

  • Hyperreality@kbin.social
    193·
    1 year ago

    It’s inevitable.

    For a while we lived in a unipolar world. The US ruled the roost, for better and for worse. The world was relatively calm.

    But now we’re transitioning to a multipolar world. Things will become more and more unstable. More wars and the risk of escalation is part and parcel of that transition. So it’s back to preparing for the possibility of nuclear war.

    It’s a shame really. Perhaps we could have tackled climate change if the world was more unified. Perhaps not, given the lack of progress so far. Or perhaps a different world order will help and offer new opportunities, if we survive the transition.