Overview
- Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed the Foreign Ministry has accepted Putin’s November 5 directive and is developing coordinated proposals for possible nuclear test preparations.
- Moscow says it has received no diplomatic explanation of whether President Trump’s call to resume testing refers to delivery-system trials, subcritical experiments, or full underground detonations.
- Russian officials say the Novaya Zemlya range has been maintained for potential use and could be readied quickly, though any explosive test would take more than a week to prepare.
- Defense Minister Andrey Belousov suggested beginning preparatory steps at Novaya Zemlya during the Security Council session, but no decision to conduct explosive tests has been announced.
- Russian diplomats warn renewed U.S. testing could spur reciprocal actions and a broader arms race, while context notes the United States has observed a moratorium on nuclear explosive tests since 1992.