Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on Russia's withdrawal from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), TASS reports.
The treaty was signed on behalf of Russia on September 24, 1996 in New York and ratified by Russia on May 27, 2000. The document was supposed to become the main international legal instrument for stopping any kind of nuclear testing. To date, however, the treaty has not entered into force because it has not been ratified by 8 of the 44 states that have nuclear weapons or the potential to create them.
According to the document published on the official legal portal, the adopted law was designed to restore parity in nuclear arms control commitments. It is specified that the document creates a legal basis for Russia to withdraw its instrument of ratification, but does not imply the country's withdrawal from the CTBT.
The document will enter into force on the day of its official publication.
