Russian President Vladimir Putin on 5 November instructed Russia’s foreign and defence ministries, special services and civilian agencies to submit proposals on possible preparations for nuclear weapons tests.
Putin said that if other countries conduct such tests, Russia should react accordingly.
Before that, Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov suggested to Putin at a meeting of permanent members of the Russian Security Council that Putin should immediately begin preparations for nuclear tests on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Belousov said the tests would be a response to the United States.
The Russian minister claims that the United States is consistently withdrawing from arms reduction and limitation treaties and is also working on a new intercontinental missile with a nuclear warhead.
In late October, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would “immediately” begin testing nuclear weapons “on a level playing field” with other countries.
Later in an interview with CBS News, Trump said that “other countries are testing” and he doesn’t want the US to be “the only country that’s not testing”.
“Russia is testing, China is testing, but they’re not talking about it. And we’re going to be testing because they’re testing and others are testing as well. And of course North Korea is testing. Pakistan is testing,” Trump said.
Earlier, Putin announced that Russia had tested the Burevestnik missile and the nuclear-capable Poseidon submersible.
In response, Trump said Putin “should have been busy finishing a war that has been going on for almost four years, not testing missiles.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Burevestnik and Poseidon tests were “in no way nuclear.”