Putin orders proposals on resumption of nuclear testing

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered his top officials to draft proposals on possible nuclear weapons testing after US President Donald Trump said last week that the US would resume such tests.

Putin said that Russia had always strictly adhered to its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, but that if the US or any nuclear power tested such a weapon, then Russia would do so too.

Defence Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that recent remarks and actions by the United States meant that it was "advisable to prepare for full-scale nuclear tests" immediately.

Belousov said Russia's Arctic testing site at Novaya Zemlya could host such tests at short notice.

"I am instructing the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry... the special services and relevant civilian agencies to do everything possible to collect additional information on the issue, analyse it at the Security Council and make agreed proposals on the possible start of work on the preparation of nuclear weapons tests," Putin said.

The United States last tested in 1992, China and France in 1996 and the Soviet Union in 1990. Post-Soviet Russia, which inherited the Soviet nuclear arsenal, has never done so.