"I instruct the Foreign Ministry, the Russian Defense Ministry, the security services and the relevant civilian authorities to do everything in their power to collect additional information on this issue, analyze it at the Security Council level and present coordinated proposals on the possible start of work on preparing for nuclear tests," Putin said during a meeting of his Security Council, according to the state news agency Tass.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov further states that it is reasonable for Russia to "immediately begin preparations for full-scale nuclear weapons tests."
US President Donald Trump wrote on social media last week that due to "other countries' testing programs" he had ordered the Pentagon "to begin testing our nuclear weapons on equal terms."
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright later said that these were not test explosions.
