Russian Diplomat Says U.S. Has Intention to Resume Nuclear Testing

March 4, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—On March 2, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in remarks addressed to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, argued that the U.S. failure to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) demonstrates U.S. intent to resume nuclear testing. “The situation involving the CTBT is causing increasing concern. The responsibility for the situation in which the treaty has not entered into force over the more than a quarter of a century of its existence lies squarely with the United States, which defiantly refused to ratify it and is now demonstrating its clear intention to resume testing,” Ryabkov said, reported TASS. “We cannot afford to remain idle spectators to what is happening. If the United States nevertheless decides to take such a step and be the first to conduct nuclear tests, we will be forced to respond proportionately. No one should have dangerous illusions that global strategic parity can be upset,” he said.

“As Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly, we should be ready to follow the example of the U.S. in case it decides to resume nuclear tests,” Ryabkov said. “The key word here is ‘if.’ If the U.S. does not start tests, we will not start them either.”

Ryabkov also warned that the increasing involvement of the U.S. and NATO in Ukraine may lead to a direct military conflict between nuclear powers with disastrous consequences. “The policy being pursued by the U.S. and NATO toward escalating the conflict in and around Ukraine, which they deliberately exacerbated, poses the greatest strategic risk. Their increasing involvement in the military confrontation is liable to lead to a direct military conflict between nuclear powers with devastating consequences,” he said.

Moscow has been warning the West about these risks, but “the warnings are being distorted for propaganda purposes,” Ryabkov lamented. “And this at a time when Western capitals are outrageously threatening to use force against our country,” he went on. According to Ryabkov, this “runs counter to the joint statement issued by nuclear powers on January 3, 2022 on the prevention of a nuclear war, to which Russia is unequivocally committed.”