Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov used a Sunday, Nov. 9 interview with VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin to once again state for the record that Russian President Vladimir Putin has given no instructions to launch preparations for nuclear weapons testing, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent remarks that the U.S. would be carrying out its own tests because “other countries” were doing so. Peskov stated: “The President gave no instructions to begin preparations. First of all, we must understand whether we should do it. This must be a serious, well-founded and thought-out decision. So our specialists will work on that.”
He also stated that “Putin has repeatedly stated that Russia is committed to its nuclear test ban obligations, and we have no intention of violating them.… If another country does this, we will be obliged to do so in order to maintain parity,” he said, calling nuclear balance “one of the most important components of global security architecture.”
