Russia will revoke ratification of nuclear test ban treaty, envoy says

US condemns announcement by Mikhail Ulyanov, saying it needlessly endangers the global norm' against nuclear testing

A senior Russian diplomat has said that Moscow will revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), in a move described by Washington denounced as jeopardising the global norm" against nuclear test blasts.

Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian representative to the international nuclear agencies in Vienna, was speaking after Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow might resuming testing for the first time in 33 years, signalling another downward turn in relations between the world's two biggest nuclear powers