Putin warns Russia may commence nuke tests after Trump threat

President Vladimir Putin said Russia has no plans to violate existing agreements on nuclear testing, but signalled that he's ready to order them if Donald Trump moves forward with threatened US atomic weapons trials.

"Russia has always strictly adhered to its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and we have no plans to deviate from these commitments," Putin said Wednesday at a televised meeting of his Security Council. Moscow would "take appropriate retaliatory measures" if the US or another power conducted such a test, he said.

After Defense Minister Andrey Belousov and army chief Valery Gerasimov called for preparations to resume testing in response to the US president's comments, Putin ordered his officials to seek more information about Washington's intentions and to set out proposals for "the possible commencement of work on nuclear weapons testing."


Trump said last week that he's instructing the Pentagon to start testing US nuclear weapons "on an equal basis" in response to "other countries' testing programs." That followed Russia's announcements that Moscow had conducted trials of a nuclear-powered underwater drone and a nuclear-capable cruise missile.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday that he expected the actual tests would stop short of using warheads, and would instead be trials for the system.

The US's last nuclear explosive test was in 1992, though it continues to test delivery systems. Russia, which has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, last conducted a publicly declared detonation test in 1990.