Senior Russian Diplomat Leaves Open Possibility of Nuclear Tests

Citing the strained relationship with the United States as a major cause, a top Russian official has said that the prospect of resuming nuclear weapon tests remained an open issue. On Saturday in answer to inquiries over whether Russia was contemplating resuming nuclear tests, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the comments He said to TASS news agency that although the matter is "constantly being considered" in all its facets, he refrained from providing further information.

Since 1990—the year the Soviet Union fell apart— Russia has not carried out a nuclear bomb test. But given the continuous crisis in Ukraine and rising tensions with the West, the problem has come back to surface. Ryabkov observed in September that President Vladimir Putin had declared Russia would not test as long as the United States conducted the same. But Russia's nuclear policy has changed in response to recent events including U.S. backing of Ukraine against Russia.

President Putin decreased the level of a possible nuclear reaction this month, suggesting that, should a conventional attack on Russia or its partner Belarus compromise their sovereignty or territorial integrity, Russia could take consideration using nuclear weapons. The U.S. letting Ukraine employ Western missiles against targets inside Russia set off this change in some measure.

Russia's main nuclear testing site is in the Arctic Ocean's Novaya Zemlya archipelago, where the Soviet Union carried out about 200 nuclear tests. Last year, Putin signed a legislation revoking Russia's acceptance of the global treaty prohibiting nuclear weapon tests in a major turn-about. The statute was offered as a means of harmonizing Russia's posture with the U.S., which signed but never approved the treaty. This has stoked more questions regarding the direction of nuclear testing and armaments control.