Putin signs law on Russia's withdrawal from plutonium disposition agreement with U.S.
MOSCOW. Oct 27 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill on Russia's withdrawal from the Russian-U.S. Intergovernmental Agreement Concerning the Management and Disposition of Plutonium Designated as No Longer Required for Defense Purposes and Related Cooperation, and its protocols, the official website of legal information said on Monday.
The agreement was signed in Moscow on August 29, 2000 and in Washington on September 1, 2000. It envisages disposal by each party of 34 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium declared excessive for military programs.
The protocol for the agreement was signed on September 15, 2006. It governs issues concerning civil liability for damage and the protocol for the agreement, signed on April 13, 2010, which governs financing issues and outlining bilateral agreements on the method of plutonium disposal, under which all plutonium affected by the agreement is disposed of by exposure to radiation in nuclear reactors.
The agreement was ratified by federal law of June 3, 2011 and took effect on July 13, 2011.
In 2016, the agreement and the respective protocols were suspended by the Russian president's decree of October 3, 2016 and federal law of October 31, 2016.
According to the explanatory note, "the reasons were: radical change in the circumstances - the introduction by the United States of sanctions against the Russian Federation, the adoption of the law on support to Ukraine, which allows interference in the internal affairs of our country, NATO expansion eastward, the increase of U.S. military presence in the countries of Eastern Europe; the intention of the U.S. to change the plutonium disposal procedures outlined in the agreement without obtaining the consent of the Russian Federation for it."
The law suspending the agreement provided that Russian plutonium, which is affected by the agreement, remains outside nuclear weapons activities. It also envisaged "conditions for resuming the agreement - reduction of the U.S. military infrastructure deployed on the territory of the NATO states that joined the bloc after September 1, 2000, the reversal of the 2012 Magnitsky Act and the 2014 law on supporting the freedom of Ukraine, the lifting of the anti-Russian sanctions and compensation for the damage suffered by the Russian Federation as a result of their introduction, provision by the U.S. of a clear plan for irreversible disposal of the plutonium affected by the agreement," the explanatory note said.
"None of these conditions have been fulfilled. Moreover, the U.S. has taken a number of new anti-Russian steps, which radically change the strategic balance that existed at the moment the agreement was signed and create additional threats to strategic stability," it said.
"The actions taken by the U.S. are grounds for denunciation of the agreement and the protocols to it in keeping with Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of May 23, 1969 due to radical changes in the circumstance that existed when they were signed. In the meantime, keeping any further obligations regarding the plutonium governed by this agreement appears unreasonable," it said.
