Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his senior officials to draft proposals for a possible nuclear weapons test, in an apparent response to US President Donald Trump’s comments last week.
Putin wants Russia to prepare to conduct nuclear tests
“I have instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense… and the relevant special services and civilian agencies to do everything in their power to collect additional information on this issue, analyze it in the Security Council and submit agreed proposals on the possible start of work on preparing for nuclear weapons tests,” Putin said in televised remarks on Wednesday.
Speaking during a meeting with the Security Council, Putin reiterated his previous statement that Moscow would not resume nuclear testing unless the United States did so first.
Russia versus the US nuclear weapons stockpile
Russia has the most proven nuclear weapons, with more than 5,500 nuclear warheads. The United States follows with 5,044 nuclear weapons. The last time Russia conducted a nuclear test was on October 24, 1990, before the fall of the Soviet Union.
“There is no specific deadline.”
According to the official Russian news agency, Wednesday TASS Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying that Putin did not set a specific deadline for officials to formulate the required proposals.
“In order to come to a conclusion about the advisability of starting preparations for such tests, it will take exactly as much time as we need to fully understand the intentions of the United States of America,” Peskov said.
Aside from Russia and the United States, the other countries that have been confirmed to possess nuclear weapons are China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, and North Korea, while Israel’s status remains ambiguous.
What did Trump say about resuming nuclear testing?
Putin’s order to prepare his country to resume nuclear weapons testing comes at a time when Russian-American relations have deteriorated sharply in the past few weeks due to the war in Ukraine.
Last week, Trump ordered the United States to resume nuclear testing, claiming other countries were doing the same. The US President did not clarify whether the appeal he ordered referred to nuclear explosive tests or to flight tests of nuclear-capable missiles.
Last month, Russia tested its new Burevestnik missile, which is nuclear-powered and designed to carry a nuclear warhead. It also conducted nuclear launch exercises and tested the Poseidon-class nuclear-powered super torpedo.
(Tags for translation)Vladimir Putin
