US-Russia Relations: US Military Intelligence Believes Russia Has Restarted Nuclear Tests

The United States believes that the Russian Federation is engaging in low-level nuclear tests, violating the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

"The United States believes that Russia is not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the 'zero-yield' standard," Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said at an arms control conference at the Washington, D.C.-based Hudson Institute think tank.

"Russia claims to be developing new warhead designs for strategic systems such as a new high-yield, earth-penetrating warhead to attack hardened military targets like the U.S. allied and Chinese Command and Control facilities," Ashley added.

According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials would not offer specifics about the size of the Russian tests and declined to say whether they raised their concerns with the Russian government.

Vladimir Shamanov, the head of Russian State Duma Defense Committee, refuted the allegations and told the Russian Interfax News Agency that Ashley "could not have made a more irresponsible statement."

Shamanov added that "nuclear tests cannot be made secretly."

The CTBT, which was negotiated in the 1990s, has been signed by 168 states and prevents any of the ratifying states from engaging in nuclear test explosions.

Russia ratified the treaty in 2000.

China, Egypt, Iran, the U.S. and several other countries have signed the treaty but not yet ratified it.