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.

  • noobdoomguy8658@feddit.deEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    You shouldn’t really assume that the Russian government is up to anything aside from imitating some activity to present the their superiors, which is all a long chain going from the very down to the very top.

    It’s a corrupt government that consists of people only aiming at filling their pockets with as much money as possible, for as long as possible. Sometimes they need to play along and make people (mostly their gone-mad old-aged marasmatic superiors) believe they’re loyal, should be allowed to keep their money and pay, and are super busy.

    There is no ideology. There is no long-term goal. There isn’t even an evil goal. There’s only greed and some things that they think they must do to keep their pockets growing.