Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered his top officials to draft proposals for a possible nuclear weapons test, something Moscow has not done since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The order, in response to President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the United States would resume testing, was a further sign that the two countries with the world’s largest nuclear arsenals are rapidly approaching a step that could dramatically escalate geopolitical tensions.
“I am instructing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense… the special services and the relevant civilian agencies to do everything possible to collect additional information on the issue, analyze it in the Security Council and make agreed proposals on the possible start of work on preparing nuclear weapons tests,” Putin said in televised remarks.
Relations between Russia and the United States have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks as Trump, frustrated by the lack of progress in ending the war in Ukraine, canceled a planned summit with Putin and imposed sanctions on Russia for the first time since returning to the White House in January.
Putin issued his instruction at a meeting of his Security Council, where parliamentary chairman Vyacheslav Volodin departed from the official transportation security agenda to ask how Moscow would respond to Trump’s plans to carry out US nuclear tests for the first time in 33 years.
The question, although intended to appear spontaneous, triggered a series of clearly prepared interventions.
Top officials urge quick Russian response to US decision
Defense Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that recent US comments and actions meant it was “advisable to prepare for large-scale nuclear tests” immediately.
The Russian Arctic test site on Novaya Zemlya could host such tests before long, Belousov added.
General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, told Putin: “If we do not take appropriate measures now, time and opportunities for a timely response to US actions will be lost, since the time required to prepare for nuclear tests, depending on their type, ranges from several months to several years.”
No country other than North Korea (most recently in 2017) has conducted explosive nuclear weapons tests in the 21st century. Security analysts say a resumption of testing by any of the world’s nuclear powers would be destabilizing, likely triggering a similar response from the others.
“The action-reaction cycle at its finest. Nobody needs this, but we could get there anyway,” Andrey Baklitskiy, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, posted on X.
Russia and the United States are by far the largest nuclear powers in terms of number of warheads, followed by China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
No deadline set for drafting proposals on nuclear testing
state news agency TAS It quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Putin had not set any specific deadline for officials to draft the requested proposals.
“To come to a conclusion on the feasibility of starting preparations for such tests, it will take exactly as much time as to fully understand the intentions of the United States of America,” Peskov said.
Trump has yet to clarify whether the resumption he ordered last week concerned testing of nuclear explosives or flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles.
Last month, Russia tested its new Burevestnik cruise missile, which is nuclear-powered and designed to carry a nuclear warhead. It also conducted nuclear launch exercises and tested a nuclear-powered Poseidon supertorpedo.
Testing of nuclear weapons delivery systems does not involve a nuclear explosion. Such explosions were carried out periodically by nuclear powers for decades during the Cold War, with devastating environmental consequences that activists fear could be unleashed once again if explosive testing resumes.
US notified Russia ahead of Minuteman III missile test, Ifx cites Kremlin
On the other hand, Russia Interface The news agency reported, citing Peskov, that the United States notified Russia before the launch of a Minuteman III missile.
The United States today conducted a test launch of the unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
