Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered top officials to draft proposals for nuclear testing in response to President Trump calling for the United States to restart nuclear testing.
“I am instructing the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry… the special services and relevant civilian agencies to do everything possible to collect additional information on the issue, analyze it at the Security Council and make agreed proposals on the possible start of work on the preparation of nuclear weapons tests,” Putin said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Last week, President Trump declared on Truth Social: “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” he declared. “That process will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
When asked if nuclear tests would be dangerous, President Trump explained, “I don’t think so. I think we have it pretty well locked up.”
“But we have more than anybody, and I see them testing. I say, well, they’re going to test, I guess we have to test too. I’d like to see a denuclearization because we have so many,” he said. “Russia’s second and China’s third. China will catch up within four or five years. I think de-escalation, or denuclearization, would be a tremendous thing. We are actually talking to Russia about that, and China would be added to that if we do something.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the tests will be system tests, not nuclear explosions, in what is considered “non-critical explosions.”
