The Russian government suspended Wednesday an agreement on cooperation with the United States on nuclear- and energy-related scientific research and development. The move follows the Kremlin’s withdrawal from another bilateral nuclear security agreement earlier this week.
The R&D agreement, signed in September 2013 on the margins of the International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference in Vienna, Austria, includes cooperation for nuclear security, nuclear power station design, nuclear technologies for medicine and industry, and the handling of radioactive waste, the government decision said, noting that U.S. sanctions have affected these areas of cooperation.
The agreement expanded cooperation in these areas between the nuclear research laboratories, institutes, and facilities of both countries and complemented the 2011 entry into force of the U.S.-Russian agreement for cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
“In April 2014, the Rosatom State Corporation received a letter from the US Department of Energy Bureau at the US Embassy in Moscow citing directives from Washington and announcing the suspension of nuclear energy cooperation in connection with the events in Ukraine,” according to the Russian government decision, calling the move a “substantial violation” of the agreement.
The U.S. and its allies introduced new economic sanctions following Russia’s intervention in Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The extension of sanctions against Russia, the letter said, “requires the adoption of countermeasures in relation to the US.” The decision cited Russian federal law as the directive under which the agreement should be suspended.
“Russia will preserve the possibility of resuming cooperation under the Agreement when that is justified by the general context of relations with the United States,” it said.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said during a press briefing Wednesday afternoon that “we’ve yet to receive official notification from the Russians about the suspension,” and that if confirmed, “we would regret” the decision.
The U.S. Department of Energy said in a statement at the time of the deal’s signing, “Potential projects covered by the Agreement could include international safeguards, establishment of a Multi-Purpose Fast Research Reactor International Research Center, irradiation of fuels and materials in the fast-spectrum research reactor “BOR-60,” and defense from asteroids, among others.”
Russia on Monday withdrew from the bilateral Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement, a nonproliferation deal under which each side would eliminate 34 metric tons of excess weapon-usable plutonium, citing U.S. hostility and failure to fulfill its side of the deal.
