Russia is conducting non-nuclear experiments at the Novaya Zemlya test site aimed at testing the reliability of the domestic nuclear arsenal. Major General Igor Kolesnikov, head of the 12th Main (nuclear weapons) department of the Russian Defense Ministry, spoke about this.
The Major General clarified that 132 nuclear tests took place on Novaya Zemlya in the period from 1954 to 1990, but after the 1990s, “taking into account the imposition of a moratorium, not a single nuclear explosion was made at this test site.” Kolesnikov recalled that in 1996 Moscow signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and in 2000 it ratified this document.
“Therefore, we are now conducting non-nuclear explosive experiments. Non-nuclear experiments are conducted to confirm the reliability of existing nuclear weapons, “he said on the Military Acceptance program on Zvezda TV, noting that the United States is” working in exactly the same direction, “conducting similar experiments in Nevada
