MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Russia's possible walkout from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is provoked by the US-led Western countries’ aggressive and boorish attacks, Viktor Bondarev, head of the Federation Council’s defense and security committee, has said.
"The possibility of withdrawal from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is Russia's forced response, provoked by the US-led collective West in retaliation for aggressive and even boorish outbreaks, unbridled ambitions and long-harbored undisguised designs for destroying Russia," Bondarev wrote on his Telegram channel.
He added that Russia's forced response to actions by the unfriendly West included the successful testing of the Burevestnik intercontinental cruise missile, the deployment of the Sarmat missile system and the Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic missile.
"Whereas [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2007 was ignored by the collective West, his statement at the plenary session of the Valdai discussion club yesterday, I am sure, should awaken an elementary sense of self-preservation in the hotheaded authors of the 'golden billion’," wrote Bondarev.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was approved by the UN General Assembly on September 24, 1996. It prohibits test explosions of nuclear charges, as well as nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes. The ban applies to tests in all media (in the atmosphere, outer space, underwater and underground) and is absolute and comprehensive. The treaty has not entered into force because it has not been ratified by the United States, Egypt, Israel, Iran and China. India, the DPRK and Pakistan did not sign it.
The possibility of Moscow's withdrawal of CTBT ratification was admitted by the Russian president in his speech at a meeting of the Valdai discussion club on October 5.