Vladimir Putin escalates nuclear rhetoric with threat to resume testing

Vladimir Putin has ramped up his nuclear rhetoric, saying his country had successfully tested the nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable Burevestnik strategic cruise missile, as he suggested Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades.

The Russian president said in a speech on Thursday at the annual Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that Russia had also almost completed work on its nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile system, which is capable of carrying at least 10 nuclear warheads on each missile.

“In the event of an attack on Russia, no one has any chance of survival,” he said, adding that he was “not sure if we need to carry out nuclear tests or not”.

In the speech, Putin also suggested that the plane crash that killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in August was caused by hand grenades detonating inside the aircraft, not by a missile attack.

“Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash. There was no external impact on the plane – this is already an established fact,” he said.

The speech came after hardline political scientists and commentators in Russia said a return to nuclear testing could send a powerful message to Moscow’s enemies in the west. “I hear calls to start testing nuclear weapons, to return to testing,” Putin said.

Some in Russia have called for Putin to detonate a nuclear bomb to show the west that Moscow’s patience over its support for Ukraine and apparent unwillingness to negotiate is wearing thin.

Most recently, Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the state-funded broadcaster RT, suggested Russia detonate a nuclear bomb over Siberia.

Between 1945 and the 1996 comprehensive test ban treaty, more than 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out; 1,032 of them by the US and 715 of them by the Soviet Union, according to the UN. The Soviet Union last tested in 1990. The US last did so in 1992.

The Russian president said Moscow could “theoretically revoke ratification” of the international nuclear test ban treaty. He noted that the US had signed the comprehensive test- ban treaty but not ratified it, while Russia had signed and ratified it.

“I am not ready to say whether we really need to conduct tests or not, but it is possible theoretically to behave in the same way as the US,” Putin said.

A resumption in nuclear tests by Russia, the US or both would be profoundly destabilising at a time when tensions between the two countries are greater than at any time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

In February, Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the New Start treaty that limits the number of nuclear weapons each side can deploy.

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In his speech at Valdai, a Kremlin-affiliated research institute, Putin also recycled some of his go-to grievances with the west, claiming that “western influence over the world is a giant Ponzi scheme.”

He said there was no need to change Russia’s nuclear doctrine, as any attack on Russia would provoke a split-second response with hundreds of nuclear missiles that no enemy could survive.

“Everything can be changed but I just don’t see the need for it,” Putin said. “I think no person of sound mind and clear memory would think of using nuclear weapons against Russia.”

Reuters contributed to this report