Putin withdraws from US plutonium agreement, sparking nuclear safety fears
Russian President Vladimir Putin (photo: Getty Images)
The Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially terminated the agreement with the US on the joint disposal of 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium. This has raised concerns about the future of global nuclear security, according to Russian media reports.
The intergovernmental agreement stipulated that both countries were to dispose of 34 tons of plutonium each, which had previously been used to produce nuclear warheads and was declared surplus to military needs.
The decision to denounce the agreement marks the final step in a process that Russia effectively began back in 2016. At that time, Moscow accused Washington of violating its obligations under the treaty, claiming that the US was failing to meet the technical requirements for plutonium disposal and was using the situation to carry out unfriendly actions against Russia.
The decree signed by Putin states that a threat to strategic stability from the US prompted the denunciation. Among Russia’s political demands are the removal of sanctions imposed after the 2014 occupation of Crimea and compensation for economic losses caused by those restrictions.
Details of the agreement on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium
The agreement between Moscow and Washington was signed back in August 2000 — shortly after Putin’s first inauguration — and became one of the key steps in nuclear disarmament following the Cold War.
Under the agreement, the US and Russia committed to dispose of 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium each, left over from the Cold War and declared surplus to military needs. That amount would have been enough to produce roughly 17,000 nuclear warheads.
Russia ratified the document in 2011, and the launch of a program to reprocess plutonium as a component of reactor fuel for nuclear power plants was planned for 2018.
However, the project was never implemented — in 2016, Moscow suspended the agreement, accusing the US of failing to meet its obligations and of changing the terms of plutonium disposal.
Now, Vladimir Putin has officially terminated this agreement with the US.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, commenting on the decision, stated that continuing to fulfill the obligations under this agreement is no longer acceptable for Russia.
On October 8, 2025, the Russian State Duma passed a bill to denounce the agreement between Russia and the US on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium.
The denunciation of the agreement effectively ends one of the last remaining mechanisms for controlling nuclear materials between the two nuclear powers, raising concerns about the state of global nuclear security.
