Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered his top officials to draft proposals for a possible test of nuclear weapons, something Moscow has not done since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.



Defense 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.

Putin said: “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.”

No country apart from North Korea - most recently in 2017 - has carried out explosive tests of nuclear weapons in the 21st century. Security analysts say a resumption of testing would be destabilizing at a time of acute geopolitical tension.

If any one country carries out such a test, analysts say the others are likely to follow suit.

“Action-reaction cycle at its best. No one needs this, but we might get there regardless,” Andrey Baklitskiy, senior researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, posted on X after the comments by Belousov.

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.

Trump said in a surprise announcement last week: “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”

Trump has yet to clarify whether he was referring to nuclear-explosive testing, which would be carried out by the National Nuclear Security Administration, or flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles.

Russia last month tested its new Burevestnik cruise missile, which is nuclear-powered and designed to carry a nuclear warhead. It also held nuclear launch drills and tested a nuclear-powered Poseidon super-torpedo.

Testing delivery systems for nuclear weapons does not involve a nuclear explosion. Such blasts were regularly staged by the nuclear powers for decades during the Cold War, with devastating environmental consequences that campaigners fear could be unleashed once again if explosive tests resume.