MOSCOW. Oct 12 (Interfax) - The Russian State Duma could consider a bill on revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) at the first reading on October 17, the Duma press service said on Thursday.
The Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee has drawn up a bill on CTBT de-ratification as instructed by Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, it said.
Speaking at the start of a plenary meeting on Thursday, Volodin said the Duma Council had discussed the matter, and all parliamentary factions supported the bill.
Volodin proposed that all Duma members act as the bill's authors, it said.
"We've been waiting for 23 years for Washington to ratify the treaty. What's the matter? Double standards, meanness, and an irresponsible attitude. You can't call it otherwise. In this situation, we should be guided exclusively by the interests of our citizens and our state, and therefore, it's been proposed that the ratification be revoked," the press service quoted Volodin as saying.
Head of the Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky told journalists that the lawmakers were supposed to consider the CTBT de-ratification bill at the second reading on October 18 and third reading on October 19.
Russia will remain a party to the CTBT even if it revokes its ratification, Slutsky said.