A SENIOR Russian diplomat said today that his country will revoke its ratification of a global nuclear test ban to put itself on par with the United States, but it will only resume nuclear weapons testing if Washington does so first.

The statement follows a warning by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the risk of global conflict is increasing.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters that Moscow would rescind the ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty to “mirror” the action by Washington.

He added that if the US conducts a nuclear test, “we will be forced to mirror that as well.”

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world. 

It was signed by both the Russian and US presidents but was never ratified by Washington.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, as the Russian parliament’s lower house is known, has said that legislators will now take steps to rescind ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty. 

Mr Ryabkov said: “We believe that the 23 years that we have been waiting for something to change in Washington in terms of ratification are quite a sufficient time for this step to be made.”

Earlier today, Mr Lavrov published an article on the Russian Foreign Ministry website warning about the rising threat of conflict on a global level.

Mr Lavrov said: “Compliance with the principles of the UN charter in its entirety and interconnection is the key to international peace and stability,” though his government’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine is a clear breach of the charter.

The expansion of Nato into the Asia-Pacific region creates a new source of geopolitical tension, he insisted, noting that this comes alongside attempts by Nato to adopt the eastern hemisphere as being indivisible for “the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific region.

Mr Lavrov said that to achieve this, Nato was creating political-military alliances such as Aukus — which comprises Australia, Britain and the United States — the “troika” of the US, Japan and South Korea and the “four” of Tokyo, Seoul, Canberra and Wellington.

The Russian foreign minister said the West had paid particular attention to expanding into the “post-Soviet space.”

For example, he wrote, the US openly set out to seize Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR.

Mr Lavrov cited US Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland as saying in 2013 that Washington had spent $5 billion (£4bn) to “educate obedient politicians in Kiev.”