St Petersburg: Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on his decision not to attend a nuclear summit in the United States last week, said on Thursday that Washington’s failure to destroy its stock of weapons-grade plutonium was a major reason for that.

Russia and the United States agreed in the early 2000s that each of the Cold War-era arch foes would eliminate its reserves of weapons-grade plutonium, which Russia did and the U.S. didn’t, Putin said.

‘Our partners must understand ... that they should be able to meet their obligations,’ he said.