Moscow has received indications that the United States is preparing to conduct nuclear weapon testing, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday, as per news agency Interfax. He further said that Russia would resume nuclear testing as and when the US does the same.
The remarks from Ryabkov came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted at the possibilty of Russia returning to testing nuclear armament. "I think no person of sound mind and clear memory would think of using nuclear weapons against Russia," Putin said on Thursday.
He added, "I hear calls to start testing nuclear weapons, to return to testing." Putin further stated, "I am not ready to say whether we really need to conduct tests or not." Earlier, February this year, the Russian President announced that his country was suspending its participation in the country's last remaining nuclear treaty with the US, adding that Russia was not withdrawing from the agreement.
The deal - called the New START treaty - was signed in Prague in 2010, came into force the following year and was extended in 2021 for five more years just after US President Joe Biden took office. New START caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.
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Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, with close to 6,000 warheads, experts say. While announcing the suspension of Moscow's particiaption in New START, Putin had also asked Russia's nuclear energy company Rosatom to ensure the country's readiness to test a nuclear weapon if needed.
(With inputs from news agency Reuters)