Russia’s lower house foreign affairs committee voted Wednesday to back withdrawing from a landmark U.S.–Russia pact on disposing of weapons-grade plutonium, according to committee chairman Leonid Slutsky, as reported by state media TASS. He said the recommendation to “denounce” the agreement will go to a State Duma plenary session on Oct. 8.
The Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement, reached in 2000, is the contract in question. It required each country to get rid of at least 34 metric tons of extra weapons plutonium to lower the dangers of nuclear weapons. A 2010 protocol updated implementation terms.
In October 2016, Russian President Vladmir Putin suspended the Plutonium Disposition Management Agreement (PDMA) . In a decree that October, President Vladimir Putin cited “unfriendly actions” by Washington and what he called the United States’ inability to fulfill its obligations.
Why it matters: formally abandoning the pact would mark another step away from the guardrails that managed parts of the U.S.–Russia nuclear relationship after the Cold War. The PMDA covered a combined 68 metric tons of material—enough for thousands of warheads—set for disposition through approved methods such as irradiation as reactor fuel, according to a report by the Arms Control Association (ACA).
What’s next: the full Duma is slated to consider the committee’s recommendation on Oct. 8, according to TASS report. The Kremlin and Russia’s upper house would typically follow with their own steps if lawmakers proceed. U.S. officials have not yet publicly responded to the committee vote.
Background on the U.S. side: after years of delays and cost overruns, Washington canceled its MOX fuel facility in 2018 and shifted to a “dilute-and-dispose” approach for some surplus plutonium, decisions that fed longstanding disputes over how to meet PMDA obligations.
This is a developing story; more details are expected as Russian lawmakers move toward the October vote.
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