30 years ago, the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin signed an order introducing a moratorium on nuclear tests.

As stated in the document, such a decision was made to support the relevant initiatives of the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and the head of the White House, George W. Bush (senior).

The order ordered to stop using the State Central Test Site of the USSR Ministry of Defense on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and to use its scientific and technical potential for civilian purposes.

Yeltsin also instructed the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR to "ensure measures for social protection" of servicemen released from their duties.

"The Council of Ministers of the RSFSR to submit by December 1, 1991, proposals on measures to use the scientific and technical potential of the landfill on Novaya Zemlya and the specialists employed there for civilian purposes," Yeltsin said in his order.

In 1998, the Central Range (CP) was transferred to the 12th Main Directorate of the RF Ministry of Defense.

Four years later, the Russian government decided to maintain the facility in working order, but without carrying out nuclear explosions.

As a reminder, the CPU started functioning in 1954.

From September 21, 1955 to October 24, 1990, 132 nuclear tests were carried out on it, including 84 air tests and 42 underground ones.

In a commentary on RT, Andrei Baklitsky, a senior researcher at the Institute for International Studies at MGIMO of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that the introduction of a nuclear moratorium had a positive impact on international security.

The expert recalled that, in addition to Russia, the United States and other members of the nuclear club voluntarily decided to comply with it.

"The moratorium on testing nuclear weapons is useful in the sense that it a priori stabilizes relations between the nuclear powers, because nuclear tests always cause great resonance, alertness, and this is an additional stress factor in international relations," Baklitsky said.

Difficulties of ratification

Yeltsin's order of October 26, 1991 provided for a one-year moratorium.

Subsequently, it was extended, and in July 1993, by his decree, the first president of the Russian Federation extended the ban on testing atomic warheads "as long as such a moratorium, announced by other states possessing nuclear weapons, is de jure or de facto observed by them. "

In addition, back in the Soviet years, Moscow pledged to abide by the Treaty on the Limitation of Underground Tests of Atomic Warheads, and in 2000 Russia joined the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

This document was signed by 185 states, but it did not enter into force due to the insufficient number of countries that must ratify it.

Russia is a consistent supporter of the implementation of the CTBT.

“For the CTBT to enter into force, it needs to be ratified by 44 states listed in Appendix 2 to the Treaty.

Of these states, 36 have ratified the CTBT, including 3 nuclear-weapon states - Russia, Great Britain and France.

Of the remaining 8 countries, 3 have not signed the Treaty - India, North Korea and Pakistan;

signed but not ratified 5 - the United States, China, Egypt, Israel and Iran, ”- explained in the materials of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry recalls that in 1999 the United States Congress rejected the ratification of the CTBT under the pretext of ensuring the reliability of the US nuclear arsenal and the limited capabilities of the verification (verification) mechanism, which was only being formed at that time.

After President Barack Obama came to power in 2009, the White House announced its intention to achieve ratification of the CTBT.

Washington made a significant contribution to the development of the control mechanism of the treaty, but no practical steps were taken to approve the document in Congress.

During the presidency of Donald Trump in February 2018, the United States adopted a new nuclear doctrine, which declares the abandonment of plans for ratification.

Moreover, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the United States is "ready, if necessary, to resume nuclear tests."

The United States still adheres to a national moratorium on nuclear tests, but does not rule out that it may be lifted.

So, in July 2020, Marshall Billingsley, who was then the special envoy of the US president for arms control, announced that Washington was ready to resume nuclear tests if it is necessary to check the safety or reliability of nuclear warheads in the arsenal or test a new design of ammunition in the event of a urgent creation.

  • Atomic bomb tests in the USA

  • Reuters

According to Alexei Podberezkin, director of the MGIMO Center for Military-Political Studies, Washington's position on the moratorium and the CTBT cannot but cause concern.

The expert stressed that the United States has no reason to be dissatisfied with the effectiveness of the verification mechanism in recent years.

According to UN data, as of September 2021, 337 stations were built in the world for the needs of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.

More than 90% of these facilities are in working order.

They record seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasonic and radioisotope phenomena in any part of the world.

"Additional risks"

Meanwhile, Washington suspects that Moscow is allegedly violating its obligations and is engaged in nuclear tests on Novaya Zemlya.

In April 2020, the US State Department published a report in which it said that Russia was allegedly conducting experiments with exceeding the critical mass of nuclear material.

The US Foreign Ministry regarded these incidents as a violation by the Russian Federation of its national moratorium and the Treaty on the Limitation of Underground Nuclear Weapon Tests.

However, according to the UN, over the last quarter of a century not a single CTBT signatory country has carried out nuclear explosions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has also rejected the US accusations several times.

According to Russian diplomats, by groundless accusations against Russia, the United States is trying to divert the attention of the world community from its refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

"The impression is that Washington is preparing the world community to abandon the voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests still in force in the United States and, as a result, to the complete destruction of the CTBT," the Russian Foreign Ministry believes. 

Currently, the test site on Novaya Zemlya continues to function.

Moreover, the RF Ministry of Defense is modernizing its infrastructure.

However, instead of explosions of destructive atomic filling, so-called hydrodynamic experiments or subcritical tests are carried out on it, in which nuclear energy is not released.

As Andrei Baklitsky explained, with the help of such tests, the process of a real nuclear explosion is actually reproduced.

“Nuclear weapons are constantly being improved and the need for testing them, of course, has not disappeared anywhere.

However, modern technologies and knowledge accumulated over the previous decades in the field of real tests of nuclear weapons make it possible to reliably simulate their explosion, "Baklitsky explained.

In a commentary to RT, Alexey Podberezkin said that, in addition to subcritical tests, methods of mathematical (computer) modeling are widely used in Russia to check the combat readiness of atomic munitions.

As the expert emphasized, the rejection of real explosions did not become an obstacle to the improvement of the domestic nuclear arsenal.

“There is now powerful software that can simulate nuclear tests.

At the same time, it cannot be said that progress on nuclear weapons has somehow stopped in place.

The practice of computer modeling is used by all members of the nuclear club who are engaged in the modernization of their nuclear arsenals, ”Podberezkin noted.

  • The first nuclear explosion on Novaya Zemlya, 1955

  • © Armed Forces of the USSR

In an interview with RT, Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Problems of the RUDN University, emphasized that the fact of violation of the nuclear moratorium and any international documents should be established by the "appropriate international structure", and not by the US authorities.

“In my opinion, the Russian leadership is well aware of the need to observe a moratorium on nuclear tests.

Its preservation makes a significant contribution to global security.

Our "Western partners" have no cause for alarm, if, of course, they do not cross the "red line" in their anti-Russian actions, "Feldman said.

Andrei Baklitsky believes that Moscow's adherence to a ban on nuclear tests avoids an arms race and eliminates "additional risks to international security."

Alexey Podberezkin recalled that the moratorium on nuclear explosions is voluntary for the Russian Federation.

According to him, Moscow is not going to abandon it, but it will have the right to do so in the event of large-scale military threats and the start of nuclear tests in the United States.

“Moscow maintains a nuclear moratorium, despite the ongoing degradation of the international situation and the growth of NATO's military activity.

Nobody can predict what will happen next.

Russia does not threaten the potential lifting of the moratorium, but, if necessary, then, I think, such a possibility will have a powerful sobering effect on the United States and its allies, "Podberezkin summed up.