President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the ratification of an additional protocol between Russia and the UN nuclear watchdog to a Soviet-era agreement on guarantees in Russia, the Kremlin press service said Wednesday.

The law was adopted by the lower house of parliament on September 14 and approved by the upper house on September 19. Russia's Nuclear Power Ministry signed the document on behalf of Russia on March 22, 2000.

The document envisions a set of additional organizational and technical measures to control civilian nuclear activity among Non-Proliferation Treaty member states. In particular, Russia must provide information to the International Atomic Energy Agency on its nuclear exports to non-nuclear powers and data on its cooperation with them.

States possessing nuclear weapons are given the right to select control measures from those proposed in the protocol, which they deem possible to use on their territory.

"This protocol confirms Russia's leading role in strengthening the global nuclear non-proliferation regime," Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of the Nuclear Power Agency, said in September, adding that the protocol's adoption would not harm Russia's security, as it is based on "the principle of voluntariness."

SOURCE: RIA Novosti

DATE: October 03, 2007

Topics: Russia