Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law Thursday revoking his country’s ratification of a global treaty prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons. Moscow has painted the deratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) as a measure intended to put Russia on the same footing as the U.S., which signed but never ratified the treaty. The 1996 accord forbids all nuclear explosions—including those in live tests of nuclear weapons—though several key nuclear powers never went as far as ratification, meaning the agreement never went into force. Last month, Putin said he was “not ready to say whether we really need to conduct tests or not.” The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it was “disturbed” by Russia’s intention to revoke ratification.
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