An ally of Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia will retaliate if any country resumes nuclear testing. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov specifically mentioned the United States in his warning, before blaming Europe for delaying peace talks in Ukraine.
Mr Ryabkov claimed that Russia has noticed that the US has spent some time readying its nuclear testing infrastructure, state media said. “If a country capable of doing so makes the wrong decision to conduct nuclear tests, and Washington is clearly in our focus, we will immediately retaliate,” the senior Russian diplomat said. His comments come after similar warnings from the Russian president last week at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi.
Putin claimed that “some countries” were preparing nuclear tests and said Russia would conduct its own nuclear tests in response.
It comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Moscow – the world’s two largest nuclear weapons powers.
The last remaining nuclear weapons treaty between Russia and the US expires in February, although the Kremlin has offered to extend it for another year.
The New START pact, signed by then-US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers.
Meanwhile, Russia has also moved to cancel an agreement intended to reduce stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium from Cold War nuclear warheads.
Donald Trump has become increasingly frustrated with Putin during the peace talks in Ukraine.
Mr Ryabkov said the “strong momentum” following a summit between the two leaders aimed at ending the war has been largely “exhausted”.
“This is the result of the destructive actions of the Europeans,” he said.
Trump welcomed Putin to Anchorage, Alaska, in August, but little progress has been made since then.
The US president has called Russia a “paper tiger” and said he is “disappointed” in Mr Putin.
In a major change in his position on the war, Trump said last month that Ukraine could regain all of its territory occupied by Russia.
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