November 6, 2025
On November 5, 2025 in response to President Donald Trump’s statements on immediate resumption of nuclear testing in the USA Russian President Vladimir Putin convened a special meeting of the national Security Council where he instructed a number of national ministries and agencies listed below to submit their proposals regarding the preparation for nuclear weapons tests.
Such a meeting was a response to Donald Trump’saccusations of Russia and China who allegedly have been conducting “secret” nuclear explosions, although both Moscow and Beijing have refuted the allegations. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has also underlined the nuclear watchdog has no indication that either country has conducted any nuclear detonations.
Before making such instruction Vladimir Putin called this issue a serious one and asked five top participants in the meeting to share their views on that matter.
The first speaker, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov has focused not on Donald Trump’s latest specific statements, but rather on current U.S. active build-up of strategic offensive nuclear arms (the full text of his remarks is attached here in Annex). According to him, Russia must therefore maintain its nuclear potential in order to respond adequately. With this in mind, the minister said it was advisable to “immediately begin preparations for full-scale nuclear tests.”
Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov noted that the absence of an official explanation from the American side regarding President Trump’s statement on resuming nuclear testing offers no assurance that the United States will not soon begin preparing for, and then conduct, nuclear tests.
In his view, the American side may continue to evade providing official explanations, but this is immaterial. If we do not take appropriate measures now, he continued, we will lose the ability to respond in a timely manner to U.S. actions, given that preparing for nuclear tests, depending on their type, can take anywhere from several months to several years. The speaker underscored that the Russian Federation is aware of statements by a number of high-ranking U.S. officials regarding the resumption of nuclear tests, and its analysis of these statements indicates Washington’s intent to prepare for and conduct such tests.
Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin reported that several days ago Russian Ambassador to the United States Alexander Darchiyevhas informed that our diplomats have contacted the staff of the United States National Security Council and the United States Department of State to clarify the substance of the controversial remarks made by President of the United States of America Donald Trump. However, the White House and the U.S. Department of State declined to provide a substantive reaction, assuring only that they would relay the information “up the chain” and contact the Russian side if it were deemed necessary to provide explanations on the substance of the questions raised by Russian Embassy in Washington.
Secretary of the national Security Council Sergei Shoigu explained that both prior to and following Russian Ambassador’s note, a series of statements have been made, all primarily directed towards a single objective. Following the statement made by the President of the United States on November 3, 2025 a lengthy interview with him was published, in which he stated on several occasions that the USA would resume nuclear weapons testing, while accusing both Russia and China of conducting such tests.
The speaker cited several U.S. high-ranking officials on the matter.
He reported that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has already announced that the Pentagon is swiftly executing American President’s instruction to resume nuclear weapons testing. Subsequently, U.S. Vice President James Vance remarked that sometimes the nuclear arsenal needs to be tested to ensure its proper function. This sentiment was echoed by Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, who asserts that the resumption of testing constitutes a necessary demonstration of strength to maintain peace and to deter Russia and China. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who is in charge of nuclear testing in the United States, made it clear that the testing would involve new systems, not nuclear explosions. In turn, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Tom Cotton noted that the issue was not about major tests with mushroom clouds to be held in a desert or the South Pacific, but rather small, controlled underground explosions, which essentially constitute nuclear weapons tests.
At the end of his remarks Serger Shoigu outlined: “This would allow the United States – and I quote – to test systems that are already in service and advanced nuclear weapons as well. We analyzed these statements, but we are not entirely clear about the United States’ future plans and steps regarding nuclear weapons testing.”
Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov admitted that the situation is fairly complex. Heagreed that it must be taken seriously, but in his opinion many questions need to be answered before we can come up with a specific decision. The Director asked the President to give some time so that the Service can dive deeper into this matter and draft proposals on it.
Vladimir Putin responded to all these remarks by reiterating that Russia has long said it would adhere to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, provided other members do not violate the accord. “If the USA or other states party to the relevant treaty conduct such tests, then Russia will also be required to take appropriate retaliatory measures,” the President said. Unlike the USA, Russia has ratified the CTBT.
He gave specific instructions to the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the special services, and the relevant civil agencies of the country to prepare a final report to him, without identifying any concrete timeframe for its preparation.
The same day the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified that the Presidential instruction on testing was not to begin preparations for nuclear trials immediately, but rather to look into the expediency of such preparations. "No, no concrete timeframe has been set. But, evidently, to arrive at a conclusion on the expediency of beginning preparations for such trials, we will need as much time as it takes to have a clear understanding of the United States’ intentions," he announced.
Annex
Statement made by Defense Minister Andrei Belousov
Mr President, Colleagues,
Of course, we must focus not only – and not so much – on the statements and declarations made by politicians and American officials, but above all on the actions of the United States. These actions clearly demonstrate Washington’s ongoing and active build-up of strategic offensive weapons.
First, the White House has consistently withdrawn from long-standing arms control and limitation treaties: the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019, and the Open Skies Treaty in 2020. Therefore, the US’s possible withdrawal from the moratorium on nuclear weapons testing would be Washington’s completely logical step toward undermining the global system of strategic stability.
Second, the United States is rapidly modernizing its strategic offensive weapons. Work is underway there to develop the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, equipped with a new nuclear warhead and a range of 13,000 kilometers. The prospective Columbia-class strategic nuclear submarine is being built to replace the Ohio-class. The new B-21 Raider heavy strategic bomber is in development, as well as a cruise missile with a nuclear warhead, and so on. Furthermore, 56 launchers on 14 Ohio-class submarines are planned to be reactivated – I emphasize, reactivated – and fully reloaded with Trident II ballistic missiles. Preparations are also underway to reconfigure 30 B-52H strategic bombers to once again carry nuclear weapons.
Third, the United States has begun implementing the Golden Dome program, which provides for both missile interception and pre-launch destruction of Russian and Chinese missiles.
Fourth, by the end of this year, the U.S. Army plans to adopt the new Dark Eagle medium-range missile system, armed with hypersonic missiles with a range of 5,500 kilometers. The system is expected to be deployed in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The flight time from Germany, where this system is to be deployed, to targets in central Russia would be approximately six to seven minutes.
Fifth, Washington regularly conducts exercises involving its strategic offensive forces. The most recent, Global Thunder 2025, took place in October of this year. Let me emphasize that these exercises were focused on scenarios involving pre-emptive nuclear missile strikes against Russian territory.
In essence, this constitutes a unified strategy that includes, among other things, potential US plans for nuclear weapons testing, thereby significantly raising the level of military threat to Russia.
It is therefore imperative to maintain our nuclear forces at a level of readiness sufficient to inflict unacceptable damage under any circumstances, and to respond appropriately to Washington’s actions in order to safeguard national security.
In view of the above, I believe it is advisable to begin preparations for full-scale nuclear tests immediately. The operational capability at the Central Test Site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago allows for the rapid initiation of test preparations.
