[1/2] An analyst monitors from a computer screen in the control room of the international nuclear test monitoring agency CTBTO in Vienna February 12, 2013. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsOct 17 (Reuters) - Russia's parliament starts voting on Tuesday on withdrawing Moscow's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The CTBT is a 1996 treaty that bans "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" anywhere in the world. It says that the test ban, "by constraining the development and qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons and ending the development of advanced new types of nuclear weapons, constitutes an effective measure of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in all its aspects". But the move would provide it with legal cover to test if it wanted to, and some security analysts see a Russian test now as more likely.

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Persons: Heinz, Peter Bader, Matthew Harries, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Mark Trevelyan, Gareth Jones Organizations: REUTERS, Comprehensive, UN, Arms Control Association, State Duma, Publicly, Thomson Locations: Vienna, Britain, France, Russia, United States, Israel, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, US, London, RUSSIA, Ukraine, Russian, Belarus