Overview
- At a Security Council meeting, Vladimir Putin directed the foreign and defense ministries, intelligence services and relevant agencies to gather information and submit coordinated proposals on potentially beginning preparations for nuclear tests if the United States conducts them.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no order was given to start preparations and that officials are to assess whether preparations would be warranted, with no deadline set for their recommendations.
- Defense Minister Andrei Belousov urged immediate readiness and said tests could be organized on short notice at the Novaya Zemlya range used in the Soviet era.
- President Donald Trump said on October 30 that he had given instructions to begin testing nuclear weapons, while Energy Secretary Chris Wright later said the planned U.S. activities would not involve nuclear detonations and would focus on other weapon components.
- Russia notes it has respected the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and last conducted explosive tests in 1990, while the United States’ last nuclear explosions were in 1992; Russia’s SVR chief said U.S. officials have not provided substantive clarifications to Moscow.