In response to President Trump’s threat to resume nuclear testing, the Kremlin said Thursday that Russia had not tested nuclear weapons recently but would if the United States did.
On Wednesday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said that the country had successfully tested a nuclear-powered drone, days after he announced the trial of a nuclear-capable missile. The tests did not involve a detonation, but the claims might have prompted Mr. Trump’s order.
“Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” he wrote on social media.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told Russian news agencies that he hoped Mr. Trump had been properly briefed on Russia’s most recent tests of nuclear-capable weapons because “they certainly cannot be viewed as nuclear testing at all.”
Russia has not conducted a confirmed nuclear weapon test since 1990.
But Russia would respond in kind if another country broke the global moratorium on nuclear testing, he added.
It was not clear what Mr. Trump meant by “testing,” and the United States routinely tests unarmed missiles.
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