Russia withdrawing from the 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement

Russia’s State Duma on Oct. 8, 2025 approved withdrawing from the 2000

Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement, which required the U.S. and
Russia to each dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium. The
move deepens the unraveling of U.S.-Russia arms control as New START’s
limits on deployed warheads and delivery systems face expiration in early
2026. According to Reuters on 8 October 2025, the Duma approved Russia’s
withdrawal from the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement, signed
in 2000 and in force since 2011, which required Washington and Moscow to
dispose of 34 metric tons each of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for
thousands of Cold War-era warheads. The decision, taken in Moscow by the
lower house of parliament, ends a key pillar of managing military-plutonium
stockpiles, with the Kremlin citing the deterioration of the arms-control
framework with the United States. This break comes as New START approaches
its early-2026 expiry, a treaty that caps forces at 1,550 deployed warheads
and 700 deployed strategic delivery systems, and as Moscow “suspended”
inspections in 2023 while stating it would observe the ceilings. In
September 2025, the Kremlin also pledged to remain close to those limits if
Washington did the same.

 Army Recognition 8th Oct 2025

 https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2025/back-to-great-power-rivalry-and-nuclear-risk-as-russia-quits-us-plutonium-pact