Russia is one of three depositories of the NPT– it has consistently expressed support for the NPT and advocated for strengthening and universalizing the Treaty.
Russia has expressed commitment towards the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and identified the promotion of international efforts aimed at achieving this goal ‘as soon as possible’ as one of priorities of Russian foreign policy.
Furthermore, Russia has pursued a range of actions in support of the objective of achieving a world without nuclear weapons prior to the current Review Cycle:
Arms control
- Since 2010 Russia has reduced numbers of deployed and non-deployed strategic nuclear forces under the New START Treaty with the United States. Russia met the treaty’s central limits by February 2018. In 2021 Russia and the USA concluded an agreement to extend New START until 5 February 2026.
- Russia has unilaterally reduced its non-strategic nuclear forces to less than 25 percent of their 1991 level according to its official statements
- Following US withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Russia made a unilateral commitment in 2019 not to deploy medium-range or shorter-range ground-launched missiles in certain regions unless similar missiles manufactured by the USA were deployed there. Russia reiterated the commitment to the moratorium in October 2020.
- In 2019-2020 Russia engaged in a series of talks with the USA on strategic stability and nuclear arms control.
- In 2021 Russia and the USA issued a joint statement on strategic stability and held a series of meetings under Russia-US strategic stability dialogue
- In 2020 Russia, for the first time, made the Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence publicly available.
- Russia participated in the work of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) to consider the role of verification in advancing nuclear disarmament in 2018-2019
- Russia joined a P5 statement that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought in 2022.
Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaties
- Russia has signed and ratified relevant protocols to the following NWFZ Treaties:
- Treaty on a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in Central Asia in 2014
- African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty in 2011
- Russia previously signed and ratified relevant protocols to Treaty of Rarotonga in 1988 and Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1979.
- Russia has expressed support for the establishment of the Weapons of Mass Destruction-Free Zone (WMDFZ) in the Middle East as one of the designated co-convenors of the conference on the Zone. Since 2019 Russia participated as an observer in the UN Conferences on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Regional issues
- Russia participated in negotiation and implementation of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear programme.
- Russia has taken a part in finding a political and diplomatic settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. Russia has developed and promoted a roadmap towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula together with China in 2017.
Other instruments
- Russia has maintained a moratorium on nuclear testing since 1991. It signed the CTBT in 1996 and ratified the treaty in 2000. Russia has expressed support for the treaty’s entry into force. Russia is the second-largest host country of International Monitoring System (IMS) facilities after the USA.
- Russia ceased production of fissile materials for military purposes in 1994. Russia has expressed support for and engaged in the work on a possible Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), including in the Group of Governmental Experts established under the Resolution 67/53 of the UN General Assembly in 2014-2015 and in the FMCT High Level Expert Preparatory Group established under the Resolution 71/259 of the UN General Assembly in 2017-2018.