The Russian parliament has formally initiated revoking the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, with a top lawmaker warning the United States that the Kremlin might abandon the pact altogether.
The aim of the Duma, the lower house of Russia's legislative body, was to restore parity with the US, which had signed the 1996 treaty but never ratified it, adding that it would not resume testing unless Washington did.
Israel and China were also signatories of the treaty but have not ratified it.
Russia's move could be an indicator that it could be considered the new era of big power nuclear testing, which the West would perceive as a Russia nuclear escalation amid the Ukraine war.
Russia Says US Aimed to Keep Status Quo
The Duma's 412 members have unanimously voted to approve the withdrawal of the ratification in the first of three readings.
"Our vote is an answer to the USA - to their crass approach to their duties to maintain global security," Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told members of parliament. "And what we will do next - whether we remain a party to the treaty or not, we will not tell them. We must think about global security, and the safety of our citizens and act in their interests."
Volodin added that the US requested Russia via the United Nations to not revoke the ratification and that its move was a wake-up call for Washington after its failure to ratify the CTBT ever since Moscow did so in 2000.
The decision was made after Russian President Vladimir Putin said a nuclear missile was tested recently, without divulging when and how.
Prior to this, only North Korea had conducted an unhindered nuclear testing scheme.
UN Official Warns of 'Slippery Slope' in De-Ratifying CTBT
A resumption of nuclear tests by Russia, the US, or China could mark the beginning of a new nuclear arms race between the major powers, which stopped testing since the fall of the Soviet Union.
For United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research senior researcher Andrey Baklitskiy, Russia's de-ratification of the CTBT was part of a "slippery slope" towards resuming testing.
Reuters additionally reported that he noted that Putin had said in February that Russia must "make everything ready" to conduct a test in case Washington did so and that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had visited Russia's testing ground in the remote northern archipelago of Novaya Zemlya in August.