President Vladimir Putin discussed what work Russia would have to do to perform a nuclear weapon test at short notice during a meeting of his Security Council in Moscow.

The Russian President has instructed senior officials in his government to examine the state of preparedness of its nuclear weapons establishment to perform a live test — which could be the first in over 30 years, given the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty — if it were deemed necessary. The conversation took place during a meeting of Putin’s Security Council which, a Russian newspaper claims, was supposed to be on road safety but which got diverted into nuclear weapons instead.

The question of preparedness came, it is stated, in response to comments by U.S. President Donald Trump last month that he had instructed “t

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