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Russia ready to test nuclear explosions for first time since 1991
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered his top officials to draft proposals for a nuclear weapons test option, a step Moscow has not taken since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Defense Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that recent statements and actions by the United States make it “advisable to immediately prepare for large-scale nuclear tests.” He stressed that Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic is the ideal place for such tests.
" I have instructed the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry... the special services and relevant civilian agencies to do everything possible to collect additional information on this issue, analyze it in the Security Council and make agreed proposals for the start of work on preparing for nuclear weapons tests ," Putin said.
No country other than North Korea has conducted explosive nuclear weapons tests in the 21st century. Security analysts warn that resuming testing would be destabilizing at a time of high geopolitical tension. If one country conducts such a test, others are likely to follow suit, experts say.
The United States tested until 1992, China and France in 1996, and the Soviet Union in 1990. Post-Soviet Russia, which inherited the Soviet nuclear arsenal, has never conducted such a test.
Recently, US President Donald Trump announced that he has ordered the War Department to begin testing nuclear weapons. Trump has not yet clarified whether he was referring to nuclear explosive tests or tests of nuclear-capable missiles.
Russia last month tested its new Burevestnik nuclear missile and also conducted nuclear launch maneuvers and tested the Poseidon super-nuclear missile. But their testing did not involve a nuclear explosion.
This move appears to be a direct response to Trump's actions and puts the world under the fear of a global nuclear conflict.
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