Kremlin Warns of Potential ‘New and Dangerous Era’ Amid Threat of Renewed Nuclear Testing
A senior Russian official has cautioned that a resumption of nuclear weapons testing by Moscow could usher in a "new and dangerous era," as tensions between Russia and the West continue to rise.
The stern warning comes amid growing speculation and concern that Russia might defy a global moratorium on nuclear testing, which has been in place for nearly 25 years. This follows years of friction and allegations of breaches in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, leading to its eventual collapse in 2019.
The aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that the U.S.’s "extraordinarily hostile" stance was a primary factor driving Moscow’s consideration of restarting tests. Russia halted such activities in 1990, more than three years before the U.S. did, as part of a bilateral agreement aimed at de-escalating the Cold War arms race.
Pursuing this course, however, would effectively reverse decades of global efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons and tecnología. It would upend the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which has been signed by 184 countries and ratified by over 160, but not by the U.S. or Russia.
