(RepublicanView.org) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a recent speech that his country had conducted nuclear-powered cruise missile tests and indicated that Russia could revoke its participation in a treaty banning explosive nuclear weapons testing. Putin said Moscow has finalized the development of the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, and work will now continue to bring them to full production.
According to ABC News, some are skeptical about Mr. Putin’s claims, saying a nuclear engine would be unreliable. The Kremlin first announced the production of the Burevestnik cruise missile in 2018, saying it was capable of circling the globe undetected – a claim also met with cynicism by Western forces.
On October 6, Russian representative to Vienna’s international nuclear agencies Mikhail Ulyanov said on his X page after Putin’s speech that the country is making plans to backtrack its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bans nuclear explosions. According to The Guardian, the State Department indicated it was “disturbed” by the latest remarks and said such a development “needlessly endangers the global norm against nuclear explosive testing.”
According to on analysis from Reuters, experts have suggested that the comments signal a warning, adding that testing would escalate global tensions and lead to similar testing by other nations. Matthew Harries of the RUSI think-tank in London said Russia’s withdrawal from the treaty would be a “strong form of signalling, to put the nuclear threat in people’s minds, to try to signal to resolve and to evoke fear.”
According to the outlet, Former Russian diplomat Nikolai Sokov said that he does not expect nuclear weapons usage from Russia, and rescinding ratification would be a symbolic and political move to force the West to rethink. He noted, however, that while Putin may not intend to use such weapons, he could “lose control of events.”
Recently, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters while Russia is indeed revoking ratification of the treaty, it doesn’t plan to conduct nuclear tests involving explosions unless the US does it. The US signed but never ratified the treaty.
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