The lower house of the Russian parliament has approved a decision to withdraw from a landmark agreement with the United States aimed at reducing the huge stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium left over from thousands of Cold War-era nuclear warheads, Reuters reports.
The Plutonium Management and Destruction Agreement (PMDA), signed in 2000, obliges both the United States and Russia to eliminate at least 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium, which US officials say would be enough for 17,000 nuclear warheads. It entered into force in 2011.
"The United States has taken a number of new anti-Russian steps that fundamentally change the strategic balance prevailing at the time of the agreement and create additional threats to strategic stability," a Russian note on legislation withdrawing Moscow from the agreement reads.
Putin signs law denouncing plutonium agreement with the US
Russian authorities have explained that cooperation
After dismantling thousands of warheads after the Cold War, both Moscow and Washington were left with huge stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium, the storage of which is costly and poses a potential risk of proliferation.
The goal of the SUS was to destroy weapons-grade plutonium by converting it into safer forms - such as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel or by irradiating plutonium in fast neutron reactors to generate electricity.
In 2016, Russia suspended implementation of the agreement, citing U.S. sanctions and "hostile actions" against Russia, NATO expansion, and changes in the way the United States disposes of its plutonium.
At the time, Russia said the United States had failed to comply with the agreement after Washington, without Russian approval, simply began diluting the plutonium and destroying it.
Russia and the United States are the world's largest nuclear powers, and together control about 8,000 nuclear warheads, though far fewer than the peak of 73,000 warheads in 1986.