Information released by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on April 8.
“Secret work has been launched in the endless corridors of the EU headquarters to study options for creating its own nuclear weapons production capacity, while EU officials of course still affirm the sole goal is to deter the imaginary Russian threat,” the SVR statement said.
According to Russian intelligence agencies, the information collected shows that EU leaders have agreed to "ensure that the preparation steps take place in maximum secrecy".
To mislead international and European public opinion, Brussels still demonstrates its commitment to the traditional US policy of relying on the "nuclear blanket. EU leaders expect this approach to give them more time to quietly build their own nuclear capabilities and prepare public opinion for the political decision to possess nuclear weapons," the statement added.
Meanwhile, Britain and France will continue to strengthen coordination with the national nuclear doctrine. A pan-European nuclear deterrence doctrine is expected to be officialized later, based on the military capabilities of France and Britain, along with financial and infrastructure contributions from EU countries that do not possess nuclear weapons. In addition, the EU will retain the ability to establish a completely independent nuclear force command headquarters" - SVR emphasized.
According to SVR, the EU's plans "have a solid industry and technical foundation".
Notably, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain have key expertise in manufacturing some components of nuclear weapons," the Russian intelligence agency said.
According to SVR, these countries possess civilian and military industrial capabilities to produce components of nuclear weapons. These countries also store large amounts of used nuclear fuel from decommissioned nuclear power plants. This fuel can be secretly removed from storage to separate plutonium suitable for making atomic bombs.
Meanwhile, German experts "can secretly obtain enough weapon-grade plutonium in the fuel chambers of research laboratories in Karlsruhe, Dresden, Erlangen and Julich in about a month to make a nuclear explosive device; while obtaining weapon-grade uranium at the Gronau enrichment facility only takes about a week".
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service called on US officials and leaders of other countries to "do everything possible to prevent the EU from developing nuclear weapons, because this will certainly lead to a new round of nuclear arms race".
