A possible resumption of nuclear weapons testing by Moscow remains an open question in view of the hostile policies of the United States, a senior Russian diplomat said.
“This is an open question,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the TASS news agency when asked whether Moscow was considering resuming testing.
“And without anticipating anything, let me simply say that the situation is quite difficult. It is constantly being considered in all its components and in all its aspects”.
In September, Ryabkov claimed that President Vladimir Putin said Russia would not conduct a test until the United States did.
Moscow has not carried out nuclear weapons tests since 1990, a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But Putin changed Russia’s nuclear doctrine after Western countries allowed Ukraine to use long-range weapons to attack Russian territory.
Under the new terms, Russia could consider a nuclear attack in response to a conventional attack that “creates a critical threat to its sovereignty and (or) its territorial integrity.”
Russia’s test site is located in the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, where the Soviet Union carried out more than 200 nuclear tests.
Putin signed a law last year withdrawing Russia from the global treaty banning nuclear weapons testing. He said the move seeks to align Russia with the United States, which signed but never ratified the treaty.
This content was originally published in Russian diplomat says the possibility of new nuclear tests are open on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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