Ryabkov says Russia's position on nuclear tests unchanged

Russia's position on nuclear tests is unchanged; they will not be conducted if the Western countries do not take these steps. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on September 23.

"Nothing has changed. As it was determined and formulated by the president of the Russian Federation, we can conduct such tests, but we will not conduct them if the United Statesrefrains from such steps, in terms of conducting tests," he said.

He also noted publications in the media that the infrastructure of the new test site is in full readiness. According to Ryabkov, this was done in response to Washington's steps, which for several years has been focused on improving the infrastructure in this area.

In addition, the deputy foreign minister noted that Russia is concerned that the United States is in no hurry to return medium-range missiles from the Philippines, deployed there for the duration of the exercises.

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Earlier, on August 29, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin said that the US authorities are seeking to violate international nuclear security, and also noted that a disturbing circumstance is the US experiment that was conducted on May 14 in an underground nuclear testing laboratory at the Nevada Test Site.

Before that, on August 27, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russian nuclear doctrine is now being clarified and may be revised. The Foreign Minister pointed out that this is well known to American politicians, whose country behaves like a master and is in full confidence in its security.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on June 17 that the alliance is considering the possibility of putting the nuclear weapons of member countries on alert. According to the Secretary General, the discussion of this issue should remind the world that NATO is still a "nuclear alliance." Commenting on these words, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that such statements are just another escalation of tension.