On May 19 (Russian time), TASS news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov as saying that Moscow would respond appropriately if any country conducted nuclear tests.
In an interview with TASS, Mr. Ryabkov emphasized that Russia is maintaining the readiness of its national infrastructure in case the US or another country resumes full-scale nuclear tests.
In any case, the current situation requires our national infrastructure to be on standby if the US takes steps towards resuming nuclear tests," Mr. Ryabkov said.
Russian officials affirmed that if any country conducts nuclear tests, Russia will respond "appropriately and commensurately".
Mr. Ryabkov's statement shows that Russia is closely monitoring moves related to the nuclear policy of the US and other powers in the context of a constantly changing international security environment.
Russia and the United States are currently the two countries with the largest nuclear arsenals in the world. Therefore, any changes related to the nuclear testing activities of the two countries could have a significant impact on the global strategic balance.
Since 1992, the US has not conducted any more nuclear tests. Russia has also not conducted nuclear tests since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
However, both Washington and Moscow continue to invest in modernizing their nuclear forces, in the context that many weapons control mechanisms between the two countries have weakened or expired.
In recent years, Russian officials have repeatedly warned that any move to resume nuclear tests could increase strategic tensions and trigger similar reactions from other countries.
There are currently no signs that the US or any other country is preparing to conduct nuclear tests in the near future. However, Mr. Ryabkov's new statement shows that Russia wants to send a deterrent message and affirms that it will respond if the current nuclear control order is broken.
