Shortly after Parliament took the final step to withdraw Russia’s signature from the treaty banning nuclear tests, the Army put its skills to carry out a nuclear attack into practice in exercises overseen by the country’s president, Vladimir Putin. .
State television on Wednesday afternoon showed the head of the Kremlin directing the exercises in connection by videoconference with senior military commanders.
Among them was Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who informed Putin about the progress of the exercises. He noted that his purpose is to “respond to a nuclear attack by the enemy” by implementing a similar attack carried out “by the Russian strategic offensive forces.”
“The program of maneuvers has been completely fulfilled,” said the press service of the Russian Presidency.
The exercises included the launch of ballistic and cruise missiles, and the participation of nuclear submarines and two Tu-95 strategic bombers.
A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was also launched, which has a range of up to 12,000 kilometers. It was fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, almost 800 kilometers north of Moscow, and its destination was the Kura range, on the Kamchatka peninsula, more than 6,000 kilometers to the east.
The nuclear-powered submarine Tula launched a Sineva ballistic missile from the Barents Sea in the Arctic Ocean.
Exercises similar to these by the Russian nuclear forces are held every fall. The particularity of this occasion is that they are held in the midst of the conflict with Ukraine and at a time when relations with the West are at their lowest moment. The confrontation with the other great nuclear power, the United States, makes everything related to atomic weapons of special importance.
In fact, Russia is backtracking on its commitment not to conduct nuclear tests. This Wednesday, the Federation Council (Upper House of the Russian Parliament) approved a law for Russia to withdraw from the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Previously, the law was approved in the Duma (Lower House).
Final approval will be completed when Putin, as head of state, signs it. A simple procedure, since it was Putin himself who launched the initiative to renounce a commitment made 23 years ago.
Among the arguments used by Moscow to make this decision is the fact that the United States has never ratified the CTBT at this time.
The CTBT was approved in 1996 by the United Nations General Assembly. Countries that adhered to it would be prohibited from conducting nuclear weapons tests in all environments (in space, underground, etc.), “anywhere under their jurisdiction and control,” the pact detailed.
Russia and the United States signed the treaty that year. Moscow also ratified it in 2000, and for this purpose the Russian legislature approved a specific law that will now be repealed. Washington did not ratify the treaty then or ever.
Putin announced on October 5 that Russia was revoking its ratification of the treaty because the US had not done so. Subsequently, Moscow authorities have assured that this does not mean that Russia has plans to carry out nuclear tests.
“Washington must understand that hegemony on its part does not lead to anything good. A dialogue based on the principles of mutual respect, the absence of double standards and non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states is necessary. The Russian Federation will everything possible to protect its citizens and maintain global strategic parity,” wrote its president, Viacheslav Volodin, after approval in the Duma.
“The Russian president formulated it very clearly: we must prepare our test sites to resume testing. However, in practice, testing can only be resumed after the US conducts similar tests,” said Sergei Ryabkov. , Russian Deputy Foreign Minister.
Riabkov himself revealed on Wednesday that Moscow had received a proposal from the United States to resume dialogue on strategic stability and arms control.
He assured that Russia is not prepared to resume dialogue if there are no changes in “the deeply and fundamentally hostile policy of the United States towards Russia.”
The last nuclear disarmament treaty still in force between the two powers is Start III or New Start, which was signed in 2010 by then presidents Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev. Moscow suspended its participation in this pact in February 2023, although it later clarified that this does not mean that it will abandon it completely.
