Russian defence minister recommends preparations be made for return to nuclear testing

Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov has recommended that preparations for the recommencement of nuclear tests on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean begin immediately, state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.

Belousov said that the United States had withdrawn from multiple nuclear deterrence treaties and was actively building up its stockpiles of strategic weapons. Vladimir Putin readily agreed with Belousov and said that Russia should respond to nuclear tests by “other parties to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty”, according to the Kremlin.

“I instruct the Foreign Ministry, Defence Ministry, secret services and relevant civilian departments to ... collect additional data … and coordinate proposals on ... starting ... preparations for nuclear weapons tests,” Putin said.

As Russia has not carried out a nuclear test since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, any decision to restart testing would be a serious escalation in its nuclear rivalry with the US.

Early on Wednesday, Washington conducted a test launch of the Minuteman III nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, though it wasn’t carrying a nuclear payload.

Writing on his Truth Social platform shortly before a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on 30 October, US President Donald Trump said that he had instructed the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing “on an equal basis” with Russia and China “immediately”, citing their own testing.

Late last month, Putin said that the Russian Armed Forces had successfully tested their new nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered intercontinental missile, the 9M730 Burevestnik and the Poseidon, a torpedo powered by atomic energy that has been described as capable of causing “nuclear tsunamis”. The Kremlin later denied that the tests represented a return to nuclear testing.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stressed on Wednesday that Putin had not instructed the Defence Ministry to hold nuclear tests, but only to study their feasibility, which, he added, was “what they will be doing now”.