MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that relations with the United States have deteriorated into a "radically changed environment" of threat and instability, on Monday withdrew his country from a plutonium-disposal treaty that was one of the framework nuclear-disarmament deals of the early post-Cold War period. The plutonium-disposal deal, signed in 2000 but which did not come into force until 2010, was being suspended due to “the emergence of a threat to strategic stability and as a result of unfriendly actions by the United States of America towards the Russian Federation”, the preamble to the decree said. Putin cited “a threat to strategic stability as a result of USA’s unfriendly acts toward Russia.” This was a reference to a deepening diplomatic spat between the Kremlin and the White House over Syria, as well as tensions and sanctions that followed Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea and its support to separatists in eastern Ukraine. “The Obama administration has done everything in its power to destroy the atmosphere of trust which could have encouraged cooperation,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on the treaty’s suspension. The nuclear deal suspended Monday was to process 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium — enough to make 17,000 nuclear warheads; it was signed in 2000 by the outgoing administration of President Bill Clinton and Putin’s first government.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suspends the 2000 treaty with the United States on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium (Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement) (in Russian).