The State Duma adopted a bill denouncing the Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation Concerning the Management and Disposition of Plutonium Designated as No Longer Required for Defense Purposes and Related Cooperation and a number of protocols to this Agreement.
The Agreement was signed by both countries in 2000, and each country was requires to render 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium, military it inaccessible for military programs. The document was suspended in 2016 by a presidential decree and a federal law.
“This decision is made
solely in the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens. We are
denunciating an Agreement that should have been terminated long ago. And we
express gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, controlling this work,”
said the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin
Vyacheslav Victorovich
The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the eighth convocation. Elected in single mandate constituency № 163 (Saratov constituency - Saratov Oblast)
. He noted that Russia “is
a sovereign state”. “And those who want to exploit Russia should understand: we
will not let you do this. We have a strong President, a responsible Parliament,
and an effective Government,” the added the Chairman of the State Duma.
As emphasized the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov, the reasons for suspending the Agreement were “a fundamental change in circumstances: the imposition of sanctions by the United States against the Russian Federation, the adoption of a law on providing support to Ukraine that allows interference in our country's internal affairs, NATO's expansion to the East, the expansion of the US military presence in Eastern European countries, and, most importantly in relation to this Agreement, the US intention to change the plutonium disposition procedure, as it was prescribed in the Agreement, without obtaining the consent of the Russian Federation.”
Sergey Ryabkov recalled that Russia had announced conditions for resuming the Agreement. “At the current time, none of these conditions can be met, given that the situation has radically changed. And in this situation, the process of terminating cooperation with the USA under the Agreement, even from a formal point of view, is just a result of such actions,” he explained. According to the Deputy Foreign Minister, maintaining any further obligations regarding plutonium, which is the subject of the Agreement, is considered inappropriate.
The State Duma Committee on International Affairs stated that “the bill is aimed at preventing such circumstances that threaten the national security of the Russian Federation.” The bill was also supported by the Committee on Defence.
