Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered his top officials to draft proposals on possible nuclear weapons testing after President Donald Trump said last week the US would resume such tests.
Putin said Russia had always strictly adhered to its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty but that if the US or any nuclear power tested such a weapon, then Russia would do so too.
Defence minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that recent remarks and actions by the US meant it was “advisable to prepare for full-scale nuclear tests” immediately.
Belousov said Russia’s Arctic testing site at Novaya Zemlya could host such tests at short notice.
“I am instructing the foreign ministry, the defence ministry ... the special services and relevant civilian agencies to do everything possible to collect additional information on the issue, analyse it at the security council and make agreed proposals on the possible start of work on the preparation of nuclear weapons tests,” Putin said.
No country apart from North Korea — most recently in 2017 — has carried out explosive tests of nuclear weapons in the 21st century. Security analysts say a resumption of testing would be destabilising at a time of acute geopolitical tension.
If any one country carries out such a test, analysts say the others are likely to follow suit.
“Action-reaction cycle at its best. No-one needs this, but we might get there regardless,” Andrey Baklitskiy, senior researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, posted on X after Belousov’s comments.
The US last tested in 1992, China and France in 1996 and the Soviet Union in 1990. Post-Soviet Russia, which inherited the Soviet nuclear arsenal, has never done so.
“Because of other countries’ testing programmes, I have instructed the department of war to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately, Trump said in a surprise announcement last week.
He has yet to clarify whether he was referring to nuclear-explosive testing, which would be carried out by the National Nuclear Security Administration, or flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles.
Energy secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday after Trump’s comments the nuclear weapons testing would not involve nuclear explosions.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests,” Wright said in an interview with Fox News. “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions.”
Russia last month tested its new Burevestnik cruise missile, which is nuclear-powered and designed to carry a nuclear warhead. It also held nuclear launch drills and tested a nuclear-powered Poseidon super-torpedo.
Testing delivery systems for nuclear weapons does not involve a nuclear explosion. Such blasts were regularly staged by the nuclear powers for decades during the Cold War, with devastating environmental consequences that campaigners fear could be unleashed once again.
Reuters
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