Overview
- Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin has not instructed preparations for nuclear tests and that any decision would follow a careful assessment under the existing moratorium.
- Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said ministries are drafting coordinated proposals per Putin’s November 5 directive, while noting Moscow has received no diplomatic explanation of what U.S. testing would entail.
- Officials highlighted uncertainty over whether Washington plans delivery-system trials, subcritical experiments, or full-scale detonations, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright stating the U.S. is not planning nuclear explosions.
- Russia’s envoy in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, told the CTBT Preparatory Commission that the U.S. could be on “equal footing” by maintaining a moratorium and urged clear U.S. statements at the session.
- A former nuclear director said the Novaya Zemlya site is kept ready if ordered, as the Kremlin stresses it would reciprocate only if another state conducts explosive tests and that recent Burevestnik and Poseidon trials were not nuclear detonations.