Russia ‘will respond in kind’ to nuclear tests by any country: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has suggested that if the United States tests nuclear weapons, “Russia will respond in kind.”

Lavrov cited on Tuesday previous statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin laying out Moscow’s policy.
His comments came less than two weeks after US President Donald Trump said he directed his administration to “immediately” resume nuclear testing.

“Putin outlined our position back in 2023, when he was asked about this issue during one of his speeches,” Lavrov told reporters, according to Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS.

“He stated that if any of the nuclear powers conducts a nuclear weapons test – not a carrier test or a subcritical experiment, but an actual nuclear weapons test – then Russia will respond in kind.”

Late in October, Trump claimed that other countries have testing programmes, saying that he instructed the Pentagon to start testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis”.

But Russia’s last known nuclear test was in 1990; China’s was in 1996. The US has not tested a nuclear bomb since 1992.

Since the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was signed in 1996, only India, Pakistan and North Korea have carried out known nuclear tests.