Economics
Putin Halts Plutonium Pact, Demands End to Sanctions by U.S.
- President abandons U.S.-Russia deal to dispose of plutonium
- Putin calls for U.S. to end sanctions, cut Europe presence
Vladimir Putin
Photographer: Ivan Sekretarev/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
President Vladimir Putin abandoned a key nuclear disarmament treaty with the U.S. and demanded the removal of sanctions and troop reductions from Russia’s former Cold War enemy to restore the agreement.
Putin withdrew Russia from a plutonium disposal pact Monday in a decree that accused the U.S. of “unfriendly” actions that posed a “threat to strategic stability.” The president said the U.S. had failed to honor the agreement, signed in 2000, which commits both countries to eliminating their stockpiles of plutonium used as the core material in some types of nuclear weapons.