Russia has officially withdrawn from a landmark nuclear treaty with Sweden, marking another step in its retreat from Cold War-era arms control structures. The decision to cancel the 1988 Soviet–Sweden agreement on nuclear accident notification and facility data exchange was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and published in the state’s legal information portal on June 27, 2025.
The move falls under Article 37, Paragraph 1 of Russia’s Federal Law on International Treaties, which permits withdrawal when an agreement is deemed no longer in the national interest. According to the decree, the Russian Foreign Ministry is tasked with notifying Stockholm of the termination.
According to the decree, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is instructed to formally notify Sweden that the agreement has been annulled.
As reported by Russian language outlet Gazeta, the canceled agreement had been signed in Stockholm on January 13, 1988 and primarily covered the exchange of technical data on nuclear installations and the obligation to issue immediate warnings in the event of a nuclear accident that could have transboundary effects.
No additional commentary was provided by the Kremlin at the time of publication, but the decision closely follows a recent wave of similar withdrawals from Nordic cooperation frameworks. In recent months, Russia has also terminated environmental and emergency-response protocols with Finland and Norway, signaling a broader strategic decoupling from multilateral nuclear and ecological agreements in the Arctic and Baltic regions.
Sweden has not yet issued a formal response, but diplomatic observers note that the decision will likely prompt a reassessment of all remaining bilateral nuclear and environmental accords between Moscow and Stockholm. The now-void agreement had been regarded as essential infrastructure for early warning systems, especially for countries with shared environmental and maritime zones such as the Baltic Sea.
Experts in regional security and nuclear governance warn that the removal of notification mechanisms raises risks in the event of a nuclear incident near Russia’s western borders. With Russia operating several nuclear power plants and military-related facilities in proximity to the Nordic states, the absence of formal data-sharing procedures could delay emergency responses and international coordination.
While the legal framework for the decree is consistent with Russian domestic law, the political timing of the move is notable. Sweden formally joined NATO in early 2025, after decades of military neutrality. Though Russian officials have not directly linked the treaty withdrawal to Sweden’s NATO accession, the cancellation aligns with Russia’s growing tendency to limit bilateral security cooperation with NATO member states.
The termination of the Sweden agreement is also thematically in line with Russia’s broader exit from post–Cold War arms-control and transparency regimes. In 2023, Russia formally withdrew its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). And in 2024, Moscow scrapped its unilateral missile moratorium, citing alleged US deployments in Eastern Europe.
However, this most recent move remains narrowly focused and legalistic in scope. The decree does not affect Russia’s participation in other international safety mechanisms, such as its observer role in regional environmental monitoring via the Arctic Council and International Atomic Energy Agency.
Still, observers warn that the steady dismantling of bilateral agreements between Russia and its neighbors has the cumulative effect of degrading trust and emergency coordination at a time of increasing geopolitical tension in Northern Europe.
As of Friday, there has been no official reaction from Swedish authorities or from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has previously supported regional nuclear safety through technical assistance and emergency preparedness protocols.
For now, Russia’s move appears to be both a symbolic and procedural statement of sovereignty—underscoring that it will no longer participate in security frameworks it considers outdated, asymmetric, or vulnerable to political manipulation.
