Russia's Vladimir Putin ordered top officials on Wednesday to submit plans for the possible resumption of nuclear testing, a direct response to President Donald Trump's surprise instruction for the United States to begin testing for the first time in more than 30 years.
In a televised meeting with his Security Council in Moscow, Putin said that he had warned the U.S. and others that if they "conduct such tests, Russia would also be required to take appropriate retaliatory measures."
He told the foreign and defense ministries "to do everything possible to gather additional information on this matter, analyze it in the Security Council, and submit coordinated proposals on the possible commencement of preparations for nuclear weapons testing.”
Several of Putin's top officials backed the need for resumed tests.
Asked whether he planned to resume actual explosive nuclear tests underground, President Trump told reporters Friday, "You'll find out very soon, but we're going to do some testing, yeah."
On Sunday, his energy secretary, Chris Wright, told Fox News that "these will be nonnuclear explosions" that would develop "sophisticated systems so that our replacement nuclear weapons are even better than the ones they were before.”
Posted by John3262005