Russia's parliament took the first step on Tuesday towards revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and its top lawmaker hinted it might go further by abandoning the pact altogether.

Russia’s parliament took the first step on Tuesday towards revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and its top lawmaker hinted it might go further by abandoning the pact altogether.

Parliament’s lower house, the Duma, voted by 412 to zero, with no abstentions, to approve the withdrawal of the ratification in the first of three readings.

Russia says the aim is to restore parity with the United States, which has signed but never ratified the 1996 treaty, and that it will not resume testing unless Washington does.

But arms control experts are concerned that Russia may be inching towards a test that would be perceived as a threatening signal by the West at a time of heightened confrontation over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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    MOSCOW, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Russia is revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty because of the irresponsible attitude of the United States to global security, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament said on Tuesday.

    “The Russian Federation will do everything to protect its citizens and to maintain global strategic parity,” Volodin said.

    Russian officials say that the revocation of ratification does not mean Russia is going to test a nuclear bomb and that it is simply coming into line with the U.S. position, though arms control experts are concerned Russia could be inching towards a resumption of nuclear testing.

    But the Ukraine war has raised tensions between Moscow and Washington to the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis just as China seeks to bolster its nuclear arsenal to accord with its status as an emerging superpower.

    A bipartisan panel appointed by the U.S. Congress said on Thursday that Washington must prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Moscow and Beijing by expanding its conventional forces, strengthening alliances and enhancing its nuclear weapons modernization programme.

    Putin has dismissed that talk as nonsense and has said that he sees no need to change Russia’s nuclear doctrine - a document that outlines that Russia would only order a strike with nuclear weapons if it was attacked, or if the existence of the state was endangered by an attack with conventional weapons.

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