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In a decree, President Vladimir Putin accused the US of creating "a threat to strategic stability, as a result of unfriendly actions" towards Russia. Moscow also set pre-conditions for the US for the deal to be resumed. Under the 2000 deal, each side is supposed to get rid of 34 tonnes of plutonium by burning it in reactors. It is part of cuts to nuclear forces. The US state department said the combined 68 tonnes of plutonium was "enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons". Both sides had reconfirmed the deal in 2010. 'We fulfilled our duties' In Monday's decree (in Russian), President Putin said Russia had to take "urgent measures to defend the security of the Russian Federation". In April, Mr Putin said the US was failing to fulfil its obligations to destroy plutonium. Instead, he argued, the US reprocessing method allowed plutonium to be extracted and used again in nuclear weapons. Both sides had agreed to build special facilities for disposing of the surplus plutonium. "We fulfilled our duties, we built that enterprise. But our American partners did not," Mr Putin said. The US rejected that claim, insisting that its disposal method did not violate the agreement. Also on Monday, President Putin submitted a bill (in Russian) to parliament setting a series of pre-conditions for the US for the agreement to be resumed, including: reduction of US military infrastructure and troops in countries that joined Nato after 1 September 2000 lifting of all US sanctions against Russia and compensation for the damage they have caused
originally posted by: paraphi
It seems to me that Russia's terms to restore this deal are unachievable and unreasonable. Therefore, it's a throw away deal from Russia.
These nuclear deals came from agreements to reduce t0eh size of the nuclear weapons arsenals and in this accord were meant to support Russia who did not really have the capability to safely dispose of nuclear materials. If Russia wants to store these materials in one of its many deeply polluted nuclear travesties, then that's their problem. One wonders if Russia is cutting of its nose with this one.
originally posted by: Xcalibur254
The US' response is pretty simple. Double down on sanctions.
originally posted by: Xcalibur254
The US' response is pretty simple. Double down on sanctions. Russia's economy is already hurting. It can't stand much more strain.
This is essentially an empty threat from Putin. If it turned out this plutonium that Russia was no longer disposing of was ending up in ICBMs it would justify all the actions NATO has been taking that Putin has been railing against. It would also cause even more sanctions from both Europe and the US. It could also distance Russia from some of their most valuable allies.
originally posted by: Velatropa24
How do you figure that? Russia has built the facility - US has not. Russia has many other state of the art facilities for processing nuclear waste, etc...
It's statements like that that come from nowhere but incorrect stereotypes.