Russia suspended agreement with the US on plutonium utilization
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the agreement with the U.S. on plutonium utilization. The corresponding document was published on the official website of Russian legal information.
The decree mentions that the decision was taken due to a "fundamental change of circumstances and threat to strategic stability as a result of hostile actions" of the United States against Russia; due to the inability of the United States "to ensure fulfillment of the obligation to dispose of the excessive weapons-grade plutonium in accordance with international treaties, as well as the need to take urgent measures to protect the security" of Russia. The document came into force on the day of its signing.
Earlier, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that nuclear weapons are still needed to deter threats from Russia and other countries. According to him, the weapons ensure that potential aggressors would never think they could escape punishment in case of a nuclear attack.
"To date, the most likely use of nuclear weapons is not a massive nuclear exchange of the classic Cold-War type but rather the unwise resort to smaller but still unprecedentedly terrible attacks, for example, by Russia or North Korea to try to coerce a conventionally superior opponent to back off or abandon an ally during a crisis," ABC News quoted Carter as saying.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia will have to take into account the U.S. approach to nuclear deterrence and respond with appropriate national security ensuring measures.
"A major concern is the mention of a willingness to use its nuclear potential in the case of an armed conflict with Russia in order to prevent the possibility of our country using nuclear weapons to repel aggression,” said the Russian diplomatic agency.