President Vladimir Putin on Thursday (Oct 5) held out the possibility that Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades and might withdraw its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty.
Putin, the ultimate decision maker in the world’s biggest nuclear power, also said Moscow had successfully tested a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable cruise missile – the Burevestnik – whose capabilities he has called unmatched.
The Kremlin chief said there was no need to change Russia’s nuclear doctrine however, as any attack on Russia would provoke a split-second response with hundreds of nuclear missiles that no enemy could survive.
“Do we need to change this? And why? Everything can be changed but I just don’t see the need for it,” Putin said of the nuclear doctrine – the Kremlin policy setting out the circumstances when Russia might use its weapons.
The existence of the Russian state was not under threat, he added. “I think no person of sound mind and clear memory would think of using nuclear weapons against Russia,” Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“I hear calls to start testing nuclear weapons, to return to testing,” Putin added, referring to suggestions from hardline political scientists and commentators who say such a move could send a powerful message to Moscow’s enemies in the West.
NUCLEAR TEST?
He noted that the United States had signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty but not ratified it while Russia had signed and ratified it.
“I am not ready to say whether we really need to conduct tests or not, but it is possible theoretically to behave in the same way as the United States,” Putin said.
“But this is a question for the deputies of the State Duma (lower house of parliament). Theoretically, it is possible to withdraw this ratification. That would be enough,” he said.
He was answering a question from hardline Russian political scientist Sergei Karaganov who wants a tougher nuclear stance. Karaganov asked if Putin should lower the nuclear threshold to sober up Russia’s “insolent” partners.
Inside Russia, some have called for Putin to detonate a nuclear bomb to show the West that Moscow’s patience over its support for Ukraine and apparent unwillingness to negotiate is wearing thin.
Most recently, Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of state-funded broadcaster RT, suggested that Russia should detonate a nuclear bomb over Siberia.
In the five decades between 1945 and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, more than 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out, 1,032 of them by the United States and 715 of them by the Soviet Union, according to the United Nations.
The Soviet Union last tested in 1990. The United States last in 1992.
A resumption in nuclear tests by Russia, the United States or both would be profoundly destabilising at a time when tensions between the two countries are greater than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
In February, Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the New START treaty that limits the number of nuclear weapons each side can deploy.
Putin said on Thursday that Russia had almost finished work on its new generation of Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads.