Dear Friend --

Today, the Russian Duma voted to revoke Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) - the first international treaty adopted to ban all nuclear tests - and we wanted to help answer some questions you may have about what it all means.

1) Is Russia leaving the treaty?  

No. To be clear, today's decision was to take a step backwards to become a signatory of the treaty. As a signatory to the CTBT, Russia still retains the responsibility not to engage in any behaviour that would defeat the Treaty’s object and purpose, according to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Article 18. In addition, Russia retains its cooperation with the Treaty’s verification system, the International Monitoring System, and its implementing organisation, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation.

Read More

2) Why is Russia doing this?  

When President Putin first raised this option earlier this month, he said this move was intended “to mirror” the U.S. position on the CTBT. However, as the CTBT has not yet entered into force, signatory and ratifying states are already essentially on an “equal footing.”  This move seems to be part of the same nuclear sabre-rattling we have seen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that is intended to intimidate its opponents by creating uncertainty about Moscow’s intentions.  

3) Why hasn’t the CTBT entered into force yet?

While 187 states have signed the CTBT and 178 have ratified it, the treaty can only enter into force once all nine nuclear-armed states, and all 35 others that possess nuclear power and research reactors, ratify it. Eight states have been holding up the process: China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States. Now, Russia’s decision makes it the ninth problem state, and further complicates this goal.

That said, even without entry into force, the CTBT has been incredibly successful: it created and sustained such a powerful norm against nuclear testing that fewer than a dozen nuclear tests have been conducted since its adoption, and only one country has done so in this century. The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) builds on this treaty by banning all nuclear weapons related activities, complementing the prohibition of testing in the CTBT, and requiring states parties to provide or help to provide assistance for survivors of nuclear weapons use and tests and remediate contaminated environments.

4) Does this mean Russia and the other nuclear-armed states are preparing to resume nuclear testing? 

Russia has declared it has no intention of carrying out a test, unless the United States does so first. But this change to its position on the CTBT, along with evidence the US, Russia  and China have also been upgrading their nuclear test sites, is an escalatory step that increases the risk that these weapons of mass destruction will one day be used. 

What this decision doesn’t change is Russian responsibility for causing immense destruction through decades of nuclear testing. The former Soviet Union’s hundreds of nuclear tests in the Arctic and across Eastern Europe and Asia left a legacy of medical, psychological and socio-economic trauma, displacement of Indigenous peoples and contaminated the environment with radiation for generations to come. 

5) So what happens now?

What we need now is for all states to condemn this move and call on Russia to remain fully committed to the CTBT. They should also use this opportunity to also call on the other 8 states currently holding up entry into force to ratify the CTBT, and of course they should join the TPNW if they haven’t done so already to support the norm against testing and help for survivors and our contaminated planet. So if you want to raise your voice, consider sharing this message on social media or contacting your elected representative or foreign ministry’s office to tell them to act. 

I hope this information was helpful and that you will continue to stand with us as we push for an end to nuclear weapons

Thank you. 

Alicia Sanders-Zakre
Policy and Research Coordinator
ICAN

It’s time to end nuclear weapons.

Support ICAN’s work