Russia withdraws from nuclear agreement with new NATO member

(MENAFN) Russia has officially withdrawn from a decades-old nuclear information-sharing agreement with Sweden, citing the country’s recent accession to NATO as the reason for the termination. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed the order on June 24, and it was made public on Friday through Russia’s legal information portal.


The agreement, originally signed between the Soviet Union and Sweden in 1988, was based on the 1986 IAEA Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident. The deal aimed to ensure mutual reporting of nuclear incidents that could have cross-border impacts. Notably, Sweden’s Forsmark nuclear plant was among the first outside the USSR to detect radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Sweden officially joined NATO in March 2024, ending its long-standing tradition of neutrality. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Sweden has committed nearly $10 billion in military and other aid to Kyiv and has initiated a significant military buildup.

Although Russia considers itself the legal successor to the Soviet Union—assuming its debts and treaty obligations—it has chosen to end this specific nuclear cooperation due to shifting geopolitical dynamics. Russian Ambassador to Sweden Sergey Belyaev previously stated that Stockholm has abandoned its neutral stance and is now facilitating NATO’s military agenda.

MENAFN05072025000045015687ID1109762609