The Ambassador of the Republic of Chile in Russia Raul Escobar Marin, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Lavrov and his deputy Sergei Ryabkov during a ceremony at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in Moscow, the September 15, 2023. Photo credit: Kommersant Photo Agency / ddp USA / Profimedia
A possible resumption of nuclear weapons tests by Moscow remains an “open question” in the context of “hostile policies” of the United States, a senior Russian diplomat said Saturday morning. Reuters.
“This is an issue under discussion,” Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, told the TASS news agency when asked if Moscow planned to resume testing.
“And without prejudicing anything, let me just say that the situation is quite difficult. It is constantly analyzed in all its components and aspects.”
In September, Ryabkov referred to President Vladimir Putin’s assertion that Russia would not conduct a nuclear test as long as the United States “abstains” from such actions.
Moscow has not conducted a nuclear test since 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia has changed its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons
However, this month Putin lowered the threshold which governs the country’s nuclear doctrine in response to what Moscow sees as an escalation by Western countries supporting Ukraine in its 33-month war against Russia.
Under the new provisions, Russia could consider a nuclear attack in response to a conventional attack on itself and its ally Belarus, if the conventional attack on them “creates a critical threat to the sovereignty and/or integrity of territorial”.
Putin claims that the changes were a response to the permission given by the United States as Ukraine to use western long-range missiles against targets in Russia.
Russia’s nuclear test site is located on the isolated Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, where the Soviet Union conducted more than 200 nuclear tests.
Last year, Putin signed a law for which withdraw ratification from Russia of the global treaty banning nuclear tests. He said the move was intended to align Russia with the position of the United States, which has signed but not ratified the treaty.
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