MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. A bill on revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has been submitted to the State Duma, the chairman of the lower house's Committee on International Affairs, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky has said.
"It has been co-authored by almost all deputies of the State Duma. The Duma Council will approve the timetable for considering the bill on October 16. We will suggest holding the first reading on Tuesday, October 17," he said.
The bill (a copy of it is available to TASS) suggests canceling Article 1 of the law On the Ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which contains a provision on ratifying the treaty that Russia signed in New York on September 24, 1996.
The legislators also suggest the title of the federal law On the Ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty be changed to On the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The law will be effective as of the moment of its publication.
On Monday, the State Duma’s Council, at the suggestion of the lower house’s speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, instructed the Duma’s International Affairs Committee to contact the Russian Foreign Ministry over the issue of revoking the ratification of the CTBT.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club that Russia could revoke the ratification of the CTBT since the United States had not ratified the document. It was up to the State Duma to make a decision, Putin said. As Volodin noted, the decision to revoke the ratification corresponded to Russia's national interests and "will be a proportionate response to the United States, which has not ratified the treaty to this day.".