Russia will consider restarting nuclear tests if the United Stated did so, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday as he convened a security council meeting after U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments last week that the U.S. would resume such tests.
Putin said that Russia had always strictly adhered to its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty but that if the United States or any nuclear power tested such a weapon, then Russia would do so too.
Defense Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that recent remarks and actions by the United States meant that 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 Defense Ministry... the special services and relevant civilian agencies to do everything possible to collect additional information on the issue, analyze it at the Security Council and make agreed proposals on the possible start of work on the preparation of nuclear weapons tests," Putin said.
The United States 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.
