Moscow Confirms It Will Not Hold Nuclear Tests If The United States Holds Back

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. (Twitter/@mfa_russia)

JAKARTA - Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Russia, according to a previous statement, would not conduct any nuclear tests as long as the United States also refrained from doing so.

"Nothing," said Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov, quoted from TASS September 24.

"As previously underlined by the president of Russia, we can carry out such trials, but we will not, given that the United States refrained from such measures related to trials," he explained.

"I would like to draw your attention to recent media reports that the infrastructure in Novaya Zemlya is fully ready. This is also in response to the steps from Washington that have focused on improving the infrastructure they have in this area in recent years", added Ryabkov.

As previously reported, the head of Russia's nuclear test site in the Novaya Zemlya Islands, Arctic Ocean Rear Admiral Andrei Sinitsyn told Rossiyskaya Gazeta that nuclear tests could be carried out there "whenever."

The site is where the Soviet Union conducted more than 200 nuclear tests, including the world's most powerful nuclear bomb detonation in 1961.

The site is closely monitored by Western spy satellites related to activity amid signs of last summer's construction work shown in the image of an open source satellite.

"The testing site is ready to restart full-scale testing activities. The site is fully ready. The laboratories and testing facilities are ready. Personnel are ready. If the order comes, we can start testing at any time," said Laksda Sinitsyn.

Taking a photo in his naval uniform next to a cupboard containing books about President Putin and a giant white taut bear, Sinitsyn described the facilities guarded in very ready conditions protected by elite troops.

"The most important thing for us is not to interfere with the implementation of state duties. If the task of continuing testing is determined, it will be completed within the stipulated timeframe," he said.

Several Western and Russian analysts say President Vladimir Putin could order him to try to send a precautionary message to the West if it let Ukraine use its long-range missiles to attack Russia, something that is being discussed.

President Putin, who is responsible for the world's largest nuclear power, signed a law last November revoking Russia's ratification of a global agreement banning nuclear weapons tests, a move he said was designed to align Russia with the United States, which signed but never ratified the agreement.

In June the Kremlin's leader said in June Russia could test nuclear weapons "if necessary", but did not see the need to do so at this time.

It is known that the last nuclear test was carried out at the Mimalatinsk test site on October 19, 1989 and at the Novaya Zemlya test site on October 24, 1990.