In a 156-0 vote taken Oct. 25, the senators in the Russian Assembly’s Federation Council revoked Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), TASS reported. Although the treaty has been in effect between the United States and Russia for decades, the U.S. itself had never ratified the CTBT, and Russia’s move was expected to “level the playing field” under current conditions of extreme tension between the two countries. It is worth noting that the Kremlin announcement about Putin’s personal supervision of the country’s yearly nuclear training exercises was made the same day the CTBT vote was taken.
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko drove the point home, denouncing Washington’s “sheer hypocrisy”:
“Russia has advocated and stands for the creation of a real system of effective international security, unified, indivisible for all, and on new, fair principles. By ratifying the treaty in due time, we naturally showed our goodwill. We indicated our wish to contribute to global security. Naturally, we hoped to see responsible actions first of all on the part of the United States, but Washington for so many years—23 years have now elapsed—has not ratified the treaty and has persistently treated common concerns with indifference.” Now that Russia has revoked its ratification, Senator Matvienko went on, this “has suddenly made the United States very concerned.”
