Putin revokes Russia’s ratification of nuclear test ban treaty

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has revoked his country’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a move he says is designed to bring Moscow in line with the United States.

The new law to abandon the landmark agreement outlawing nuclear weapons tests was signed on Thursday, a week after Russia’s upper house Federation Council unanimously approved it.

The lower house State Duma had already passed the bill in an accelerated vote. With Putin’s signature, the legislation came into effect on Thursday.

Russia simulates nuclear strike after opting out of treaty

Russia’s military has conducted a simulated nuclear strike in a drill overseen by President Vladimir Putin, hours after the upper house of parliament voted to rescind the country’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban.

The bill to end ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, approved in the lower house last week, will now be sent to Putin for final approval. Putin has said that revoking Russia’s 2000 ratification would “mirror” the stance of the US, which signed but did not ratify the nuclear test ban.

Russia prepares to withdraw from nuclear test ban treaty

Russian lawmakers have approved a bill revoking the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The move adds to the tension between Moscow and the West amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The upper house Federation Council unanimously approved the bill to abandon the landmark agreement outlawing nuclear weapons tests on Wednesday. The lower house State Duma passed it in an accelerated vote last week. The legislation now only needs the signature of President Vladimir Putin to come into effect.

China expanding nuclear arsenal much faster than predicted, US report says

A Pentagon report on China’s military power says Beijing is exceeding previous projections of how quickly it is building up its nuclear weapons arsenal and is “almost certainly” learning lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine about what a conflict over Taiwan might look like.

The report released on Thursday also warns that China may be pursuing a new intercontinental missile system using conventional arms that, if fielded, would allow Beijing “to threaten conventional strikes against targets in the continental United States, Hawaii and Alaska.”

‘Major expansion’: China now has more than 500 nukes, Pentagon says

China has blown past previous projections for the size of its nuclear arsenal and is now producing even more weapons while expanding its navy, the Pentagon is warning in a new report released Thursday.

The Defense Department specifically believes China had more than 500 nuclear warheads in its arsenal as of May, roughly 100 more than last year, according to its annual China Military Power Report.

DOD also estimates China will likely double that to more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, and the number is expected to grow, the report says.

Russia to build nuclear plant to meet Burkina Faso's energy needs

Burkina Faso's military leaders have signed a deal with Russia to build a nuclear power plant to increase electricity supplies.

It is the junta's latest move to align itself with Russia after falling out with most of its Western partners.

The junta has turned to Russia for economic and military support since it seized power last year.

Russia will revoke ratification of nuclear test ban treaty, envoy says

A senior Russian diplomat has said that Moscow will revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), in a move Washington denounced as jeopardising the “global norm” against nuclear test blasts.

Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian representative to the international nuclear agencies in Vienna, was speaking after Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow might resuming testing for the first time in 33 years, signalling another downward turn in relations between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers

Putin hints Russia could return to nuclear testing

Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that Russia could return to nuclear weapons testing and might withdraw its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty.

In an address on Thursday that touched on topics such as nuclear weapons, energy, and the war in Ukraine, Putin also said that Russia had tested a new nuclear-powered missile delivery system but had not decided whether to resume the testing of explosives.

“I think no person of sound mind and clear memory would think of using nuclear weapons against Russia,” Putin said in the speech at a forum of foreign policy experts in Sochi.

Russia puts advanced Sarmat nuclear missile system on ‘combat duty’

Moscow has put into service an advanced intercontinental ballistic missile that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said would make Russia’s enemies “think twice” about their threats, according to reported comments by the head of the country’s space agency.

Yuri Borisov, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said Sarmat missiles have “assumed combat duty”, according to Russian news agency reports on Friday.

Russia’s Lavrov says West needs continual reminder of risks of nuclear war

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that possession of nuclear weapons protects Russia from security threats and that Moscow continually reminded the West of the risk of a nuclear conflict.

Lavrov’s comments are the latest reference by Russian officials to their country’s nuclear weapons arsenal, a rhetoric of military escalation by Moscow that has gained tempo and frequency since Russian forces 

Last month, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would have to use a nuclear weapon if Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian troops was a success.

Diplomats: Progress Made In Vienna At Iran Nuclear Talks

VIENNA (AP) — Top diplomats said Sunday that further progress had been made at talks between Iran and global powers to try to restore a landmark 2015 agreement to contain Iranian nuclear development that was abandoned by the Trump administration. They said it was now up to the governments involved in the negotiations to make political decisions.

It was the first official meeting since Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election last week.

Putin, Xi announce start of joint Russian-Chinese nuclear project

Russia’s and China’s leaders announced the beginning of a series of joint nuclear energy projects on Monday, and touted the planned construction of several Chinese nuclear power plants with Russian technology.

The Associated Press reported that China’s state media company CCTV broadcast a joint videoconference between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who announced the joint construction of two Russian nuclear reactors at China’s Tianwan and Xudapu power facilities.

North Korea vows to press on with nuclear agenda as Russia denies trade violations

Russia has denied claims that UN sanctions against North Korea have been breached by Russian tankers transferring fuel to the regime’s tankers at sea.

The statement from the foreign ministry said Russia has “fully and strictly observed the sanctions regime”. It came in response to a Reuters report citing two separate, unidentified western European security sources who said ship-to-ship transfers took place in October and November and represented a breach of sanctions.

Putin urges Russian nuclear weapons boost

Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for the country to reinforce its military nuclear potential and praised the army's performance in its Syria campaign.

In a speech that recapped military activities in 2016, Putin said the army's preparedness has "considerably increased" and called for continued improvement that would ensure it can "neutralise any military threat".

Iran Says It Has Options If Nuclear Deal Fails

BRATISLAVA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Iran wants all parties to stay committed to an international nuclear deal signed last year, but has options if that does not happen, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday.

He spoke after the U.S. presidential election victory of Donald Trump, who had said he was opposed to the nuclear pact during campaigning.

“Of course Iran’s options are not limited but our hope and our desire and our preference is for the full implementation of the nuclear agreement, which is not bilateral for one side to be able to scrap,” Zarif told a news conference in Bratislava after meeting his Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author: Reuters

Politicians Push Nuclear ‘Poison Pill’

LONDON—The deeply troubled European nuclear industry, dominated by the huge French state-owned company EDF, home is now surviving only because of massive public subsidies from the French, British and Chinese governments.

The depth of the financial problems that EDF is facing was underlined last week by the resignation of its finance director, Thomas Piquemal.

Obama’s Russian Rationale for $1 Trillion Nuke Plan Signals New Arms Race

The Obama administration has historically insisted that its massive $1 trillion nuclear weapons modernization program does not represent a return to Cold War-era nuclear rivalry between Russia and the United States.

The hugely expensive undertaking, which calls for a slew of new cruise missiles, ICBMs, nuclear submarines, and long-range bombers over the next three decades, has been widely panned by critics as “wasteful,” “unsustainable,” “unaffordable,” and “a fantasy.”

North Korea Revamps, Restarts Nuclear Bomb Fuel Production Plants

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A day after threatening rocket launches, North Korea declared Tuesday that it has revamped and restarted all its atomic bomb fuel production plants.

The back-to-back announcements, which many outside analysts consider threats designed to spur talks with the United States that could eventually provide impoverished North Korea with concessions, will push Pyongyang further toward a standoff with Washington and its allies.

Fox News Embarrasses Dick Cheney On Iraq And Iran

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday shrugged off the rapid growth of Iran's nuclear capacity during the Bush years, insisting that the American invasion of Iraq had curbed Iranian nuclear ambitions.

"There was military action that had an impact on the Iranians when we took down Saddam Hussein," Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday." "There was a period of time when they stopped their program because they were afraid what we did to Saddam we were going to do to them next."

Canada Helps Block UN Plan To Rid World Of Nukes, Citing Israel Defence

OTTAWA - Israel has expressed its gratitude to Canada for helping to block a major international plan towards ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

Elsewhere, however, there was widespread international disappointment that Canada and Britain supported the United States in opposing the document at the United Nations review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The document called on the UN to hold a disarmament conference on the Middle East by 2016. Such a conference could have forced Israel to publicly acknowledge that it is a nuclear power, something the Jewish state has never done.