Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law denunciating the agreement with the United States on the disposal of plutonium, which is no longer needed for defense purposes. The corresponding document was posted on the official publication portal for legal acts.
The law denounces the agreement between the governments of the Russian Federation and the United States on the disposal of plutonium, declared to be no longer necessary for defense purposes, its handling and cooperation in this area, signed in Moscow on August 29, 2000 and in Washington on September 1, 2000.
The accompanying documents noted that the agreement and its protocols were suspended in 2016 by decree of the Russian president. The reasons for this were a fundamental change in circumstances—the imposition of US sanctions against Russia, the adoption of a law on support for Ukraine that allows for interference in the country's internal affairs, NATO's eastward expansion, the buildup of the US military presence in Eastern European countries, and the US intention to change the plutonium disposition procedure outlined in the agreement without the consent of the Russian Federation.
It was emphasized that the law suspending the agreement stipulates that Russian plutonium covered by the agreement will remain outside of nuclear weapons activities. The conditions for the agreement's resumption were also specified: a reduction in US military infrastructure stationed on the territory of NATO member states that joined the bloc after September 1, 2000; the repeal of the 2012 Magnitsky Act and the 2014 Ukraine Freedom Support Act; the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions and compensation for damages incurred by the Russian Federation as a result of their imposition; and other provisions.
It is noted that none of these conditions have been met. Moreover, the United States has taken a number of new anti-Russian steps that fundamentally alter the strategic balance that existed at the time of the Agreement's conclusion and create additional threats to strategic stability.
The materials also state that the US actions constitute grounds for denunciation of the agreement and its protocols in accordance with Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of May 23, 1969, due to a fundamental change in the circumstances that existed at the time of their conclusion. Furthermore, maintaining any further obligations regarding the plutonium that is the subject of the agreement appears inappropriate, the accompanying documents noted.
In December 2012, the United States passed the Magnitsky Act, imposing sanctions on Russians believed to be involved in human rights violations. Russian authorities, for their part, have repeatedly stated that politicizing the Magnitsky case is unacceptable. The Magnitsky Act was subsequently given the status of a global law, with sanctions not limited to Russian citizens but applied to all countries whose citizens, in the United States' view, violate human rights. Similar lists were later introduced by several EU countries .
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the 10th All-Russian Congress of Judges, recalled the inviolability of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.