The lower house of Russia’s legislature has passed a law revoking the country’s ratification of a 1996 international treaty banning nuclear testing.
Lawmaker voted unanimously on a combined second and third reading of the bill revoking the 2000 ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty during a fast-track hearing in the State Duma on Wednesday.
The initiative will next be voted on by Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, before being sent to President Vladimir Putin to sign into law.
Although it never entered into force, the agreement has been ratified by 178 countries, including nuclear powers France and Britain, and has symbolic value.
Its backers say it established an international norm against live tests of nuclear weapons, but critics say the potential of the deal remains unrealized without key ratifications by the United States and China.
Earlier this year, Russia suspended its participation in New START, the last remaining bilateral nuclear weapons treaty between Washington and Moscow.