The State Duma at a plenary session adopted a bill on the denunciation of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the United States of America on the disposal of plutonium.
The agreement, signed by both countries in 2000, provided for the disposal by each party of 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium declared surplus to military programs. The effect of this document was suspended in 2016 on the basis of a Decree of the President of the Russian Federation and the adopted federal law.
The reasons for suspending the agreement were "a fundamental change in circumstances: the introduction of US sanctions against the Russian Federation, the adoption of a law on support for Ukraine that allows interference in our country's internal affairs, the expansion of NATO to the East, the build-up of the US military presence in Eastern European countries, and, importantly, specifically in relation to this agreement, the US intention to change the procedure for plutonium disposal as it was written in the text of the agreement itself, without obtaining the consent of the Russian Federation.
The Deputy Minister stressed that the Russian side had formulated the conditions for resuming the agreement.
At the moment, none of these conditions can be met, given that the situation has radically changed. And in this situation, it is only natural to complete the process of terminating cooperation with the Americans under the agreement, even from a formal point of view.
The bill was supported by the Defense Committee and is "aimed at preventing the occurrence of circumstances that threaten the national security of the Russian Federation."