Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his government to submit proposals to resume nuclear weapons testing in response to President Trump. Ordering the Pentagon to do it “on par” with other countries.
At a meeting with his Security Council on Wednesday, Putin said Russia has adhered to international law Nuclear Test Ban Treatywhich prohibits nuclear test explosions.
But, he said, “If the US or any other Treaty state were to conduct such tests, Russia would be under an obligation to take reciprocal measures.”
Mr. Trump proclaimed in one interview 60 Minutes Asked about his order that Russia is among a handful of countries testing nuclear weapons.
“The Russian tests and the Chinese tests, but they don’t talk about it,” Mr. Trump told CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell. “We will test because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea has tested. Pakistan has tested.”
It is unclear what type of testing Mr. Trump is ordering. The last time the US detonated a nuclear device as part of a test was in 1992.
“No one knows what Trump meant by the ‘nuclear test’ (probably not himself),” wrote Dmirty Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. a message on social networks Wednesday
“But he’s the president of the United States,” his message continued. “And the consequences of these words are inescapable: Russia will be forced to evaluate the very desirability of conducting full nuclear tests.”
China was the first of the nations to be denounced by Mr. Trump deny any secret nuclear test. A Pakistani officer said CBS News the country “will not be the first to resume nuclear testing.”
Mr. Trump confirmed to O’Donnell that the president’s nominee to lead STRATCOM — the US military command responsible for nuclear weapons — had told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that neither China nor Russia were testing nuclear explosive devices.
North Korea is the only nation to have conducted a nuclear explosion since the 1990s. Russia’s last nuclear explosive test was in 1990, and China’s in 1996.
The United States is among nearly 180 nations that have signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Along with China and several other nuclear powers, however, the United States has never ratified the treaty, a situation Putin highlighted in 2023 when he decided to do so. Cancel Moscow’s ratification.
Russia, on the other hand, has increased its tests of nuclear capabilities and even nuclear weapon systemshe has not announced the resumption of detonations of nuclear tests.
Putin’s revocation of Russia’s CTBT ratification two years ago fueled speculation that he might call for new nuclear detonation tests, along with calls from black members of Russia’s parliament. Putin previously suggested that Russia would resume nuclear explosive tests if the US did so first.
A year ago, Putin approved changes to Russia’s official nuclear doctrine, formally changing the terms — and lowering the threshold — under which Moscow would consider using its nuclear weapons.
Updated doctrine, as announced Ukraine launched its first offensive deeper into Russia With US-supplied missiles, Russia says it will treat an attack by a non-nuclear state supported by a country with nuclear capabilities as a joint attack by both.
This means that in theory any attack on Russia by a country that is part of a coalition can be considered an attack by the whole group. According to the doctrine, Russia could theoretically consider any major attack on its territory, even with conventional weapons, to a non-nuclear Ukraine sufficient to trigger a nuclear response, because Ukraine is protected by the US with nuclear weapons.
Putin has done it He threatened to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine several times since ordering a full-scale invasion of the country on February 24, 2022, and Russia has repeatedly warned the West that if Washington allowed Ukraine to launch Western missiles into its territory, the US and its NATO allies would be considered directly involved in the war.
Mr Trump so far it has declined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s repeated request for Tomahawk long-range missiles from the US.
What does Trump mean when the US resumes nuclear testing?
Mr. Trump has not been clear about what he said The US military plans to test its nuclear arsenal it includes conducting actual atomic explosions, which have not been conducted in the US for more than 30 years, or simply expanding testing of weapons systems used to deliver nuclear warheads.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was appointed by Mr Trump, played down on Sunday that the US was about to start detonating nuclear explosions.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions,” Wright told Fox News. They’re what we call ‘non-critical explosions,’ so you’re testing all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they provide the right geometry and set up a nuclear explosion.”