Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 00:31, 6 December 2023

A request that this article title be changed to Russia and nuclear weapons is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed.

Russian Federation (originally the Soviet Union)
Nuclear program start date	1943
First nuclear weapon test	August 29, 1949
First thermonuclear weapon test	November 22, 1955
Last nuclear test	October 24, 1990
Largest yield test	50 Mt (210 PJ) (Tsar Bomba)
Total tests	715 detonations
Peak stockpile	46,000 warheads (1975) 45,000 warheads (1990)
Current stockpile	5,889 total
Current strategic arsenal	1,674
Cumulative strategic arsenal in megatonnage	663.5–801.5 (2016 est.) (variability because of uncertainty about SS-18 yields)
Maximum missile range	Intercontinental up to 16,000 kilometers
NPT party	Yes (1968, one of five recognized powers)

Weapons of mass destruction
By type
Biological Chemical Nuclear Radiological
By country
Albania Algeria Argentina Australia Brazil Bulgaria Canada China Egypt France Germany India Iran Iraq Israel Italy Japan Kazakhstan Libya Mexico Myanmar Netherlands North Korea Pakistan Philippines Poland Rhodesia Romania Russia (Soviet Union) Saudi Arabia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Ukraine United Kingdom United States Yugoslavia
Proliferation
Chemical Nuclear Missiles
Treaties
List of treaties (treaty parties)
Category
v t e

The Russian Federation is known to possess or have possessed three types of weapons of mass destruction: nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and chemical weapons. It is one of the five nuclear-weapon states recognized under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Russia possesses a total of 5,889 nuclear warheads as of 2023, the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world; the second-largest stockpile is the United States' 5,428 warheads. Russia's deployed missiles (those actually ready to be launched) number about 1,674, second to the United States' 1,770. The remaining weapons are either in reserve stockpiles, or have been retired and are slated for dismantling. Russia's predecessor state, the Soviet Union, reached a peak stockpile of about 45,000 nuclear warheads in 1986. The number of weapons Russia may possess is currently controlled by the bilateral New START treaty with the United States.

The Soviet Union ratified the Geneva Protocol—prohibiting the use of biological and chemical weapons in interstate conflicts—on April 5, 1928, with reservations that were later dropped on January 18, 2001. Russia is also party to the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. The Soviet biological weapons program violated the Biological Weapons Convention and was the world's largest, longest, and most sophisticated program of its kind. At its peak, the program employed up to 65,000 people.

Despite being a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, Russia has continued to hold and occasionally use chemical weapons. In 1997, Russia declared an arsenal of 39,967 tons of chemical weapons, which it worked in part to decrease. Its stock of weapons was officially declared destroyed in 2017. The poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018 and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny in 2020, both carried out by Russia, revealed that the country maintained an illicit chemical weapons program.

Nuclear weapons

History

Soviet era

Post-Soviet era

At the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet nuclear weapons were deployed in four of the new republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. In May 1992, these four states signed the Lisbon Protocol, agreeing to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, with Russia the successor state to the Soviet Union as a nuclear state, and the other three states joining as non-nuclear states.

Ukraine agreed to give up its weapons to Russia, in exchange for guarantees of Ukrainian territory from Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, known as the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. China and France also made statements in support of the memorandum.

Arms reduction

The threat of nuclear warfare was a persistent and terrifying threat during the Cold War. At its height, the Soviet Union and United States each mustered tens of thousands of warheads, under the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. By the 1980s, both the United States and Soviet Union sought to reduce the number of weapons the other was fielding. This led to the opening of arms reduction talks in 1982.

This culminated in the signing of the START I treaty in 1991: the first nuclear arms reduction treaty between the two global powers. This first treaty limited the number of deployed warheads in each nation to 6,000, nearly halving the prior 10,000 to 12,000 being fielded in 1991. The considerable success of START I, combined with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, led to the START II treaty. Russia never ratified the treaty, and it did not go into effect. An attempted START III was attempted but could not get past negotiations.

Instead, the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty was passed in 2002, capping warheads at 2,200. The current limitations stem from the New START treaty, ratified in 2010. It limits each side to 1,550 weapons. Nuclear bombers only count as one weapon each, even though they may carry up to 20, so the actual limit on the countries is slightly higher. The treaty is in force through to 2026.

After U.S. President George W. Bush withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Russia responded by building-up their nuclear capabilities, in such a way as to counterbalance U.S. capabilities. Russia decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted on 7 July 2017 by 122 States. Most analysts agree that Russia's nuclear strategy under Putin eventually brought it into violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (although this is not confirmed).

According to Russian officials, the American decision to deploy the missile defense system in Europe was a violation of the treaty. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on 20 October 2018 that the U.S. would no longer consider itself bound by the treaty's provisions, raising nuclear tensions between the two powers.

On November 2, 2023, Putin signed a law that withdraws Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

Nuclear arsenal of Russia

The exact number of nuclear warheads is a state secret and is therefore a matter of guesswork. As of 2022, the Federation of American Scientists estimates that Russia possesses 5,977 nuclear weapons, while the United States has 5,428; Russia and the U.S. each have about 1,600 active deployed strategic nuclear warheads. Russia's stockpile is growing in size, while the United States' is shrinking. Russia has six nuclear missile fields in Kozelsk, Tatishchevo, Uzhur, Dombarovsky, Kartalay, and Aleysk; nuclear missile submarines patrolling from three naval bases at Nerpich'ya, Yagel'Naya, and Rybachiy; and nuclear bombers at Ukrainka and Engels air bases.

The RS-28 Sarmat (Russian: РС-28 Сармат; NATO reporting name: SATAN 2), is a Russian liquid-fueled, MIRV-equipped, super-heavy thermonuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile in development by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau since 2009, intended to replace the previous R-36 missile. Its large payload would allow for up to 10 heavy warheads or 15 lighter ones, or a combination of warheads and massive amounts of countermeasures designed to defeat anti-missile systems. It was heralded by the Russian military as a response to the U.S. Prompt Global Strike.

In 2015, information emerged that Russia may be developing a new nuclear torpedo, the Status-6 Ocean Multipurpose System, codenamed "Kanyon" by Pentagon officials. This weapon is designed to create a tsunami wave up to 500m tall that will radioactively contaminate a wide area on an enemy coasts with cobalt-60, and to be immune to anti-missile defense systems such as laser weapons and railguns that might disable an ICBM. Two potential carrier submarines, the Project 09852 Belgorod, and the Project 09851 Khabarovsk, are new boats laid down in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

Status 6 appears to be a deterrent weapon of last resort. It appears to be a torpedo-shaped robotic mini-submarine, that can travel at speeds of 185 km/h (100 kn). More recent information suggests a top speed of 100 km/h (54 kn), with a range of 10,000 km (6,200 mi) and a depth maximum of 1,000 m (3,300 ft). This underwater drone is cloaked by stealth technology to elude acoustic tracking devices.

During an annual state-of-the-nation address given on March 1, 2018, President Vladimir Putin publicly claimed that Russia was now in possession of several new classes of nuclear weapons, including some with capabilities previously speculated to exist. Putin discussed several new or upgraded weapons, including a hypersonic glide vehicle known as the Avangard, capable of performing sharp maneuvers while traveling at 20 times the speed of sound making it "absolutely invulnerable for any missile defense system."

Putin discussed the existence of a nuclear powered underwater torpedo and a nuclear powered cruise missile (9M730 Burevestnik), both with effectively unlimited range. He discussed that Russia had tested a new class of traditional ICBM called the RS-28 Sarmat, which expanded upon the range and carrying capability of the Soviet-era Satan ICBM. Animations of these weapons were shown in front of the live and televised audience. Putin suggested that an online poll be conducted to give them official public names.

Nuclear weapons in Russian military doctrine

According to a Russian military doctrine stated in 2010, nuclear weapons could be used by Russia "in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it or its allies, and also in case of aggression against Russia with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened". Most military analysts believe that, in this case, Russia would pursue an 'escalate to de-escalate' strategy, initiating limited nuclear exchange to bring adversaries to the negotiating table. Russia will also threaten nuclear conflict to discourage initial escalation of any major conventional conflict.

Nuclear proliferation

After the Korean War, the Soviet Union transferred nuclear technology and weapons to the People's Republic of China as an adversary of the United States and NATO. According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, "Khrushchev's nuclear-proliferation process started with Communist China in April 1955, when the new ruler in the Kremlin consented to supply Beijing a sample atomic bomb and to help with its mass production. Subsequently, the Soviet Union built all the essentials of China's new military nuclear industry."

Russia is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" (NWS) under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which Russia ratified (as the Soviet Union) in 1968.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of Soviet-era nuclear warheads remained on the territories of Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Under the terms of the Lisbon Protocol to the NPT, and following the 1995 Trilateral Agreement between Russia, Belarus, and the US, these were transferred to Russia, leaving Russia as the sole inheritor of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. It is estimated that the Soviet Union had approximately 45,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled at the time of its collapse.

The collapse of the Soviet Union allowed for a warming of relations with NATO. Fears of a nuclear holocaust lessened. In September 1997, the former secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Lebed claimed 100 "suitcase sized" nuclear weapons were unaccounted for. He said he was attempting to inventory the weapons when he was fired by President Boris Yeltsin in October 1996. Indeed, several US politicians have expressed worries and promised legislation addressing the threat.

There were allegations that Russia contributed to the North Korean nuclear program, selling it the equipment for the safe storage and transportation of nuclear materials. Nevertheless, Russia has condemned North Korean nuclear tests since then. The Russian Federation has also wider commercial interests in selling the nuclear technology to India and Iran, reaching understanding memorandums in training their technicians in their respected nuclear programs. Russia is allegedly making efforts to build its influential hold in Africa for earning several billions of pounds by selling nuclear technology to developing African countries.

Nuclear sabotage allegations from Russia

The highest-ranking GRU defector Stanislav Lunev described alleged Soviet plans for using tactical nuclear weapons for sabotage against the United States in the event of war. He described Soviet-made suitcase nukes identified as RA-115s (or RA-115-01s for submersible weapons) which weigh 50–60 pounds (23–27 kg). These portable bombs can last for many years if wired to an electric source. "In case there is a loss of power, there is a battery backup. If the battery runs low, the weapon has a transmitter that sends a coded message – either by satellite or directly to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate."

Lunev was personally looking for hiding places for weapons caches in the Shenandoah Valley area. He said that "it is surprisingly easy to smuggle nuclear weapons into the US" either across the Mexican border or using a small transport missile that can slip though undetected when launched from a Russian airplane. Searches of the areas identified by Lunev – who admits he never planted any weapons in the US – have been conducted, "but law-enforcement officials have never found such weapons caches, with or without portable nuclear weapons" in the US.

In a 2004 interview, colonel general of RVSN Viktor Yesin said that Soviet small-scale nuclear bombs have only been operated by the Army. All such devices have been stored in a weapons depot within Russia, and only left it for checks at the plant which produced them.

2020 Russian nuclear deterrence state policy

On June 2, 2020, President Putin signed an Executive Order formally titled "Fundamentals of Russia’s Nuclear Deterrence State Policy", in an unprecedented public release of an official document on Russia's nuclear policy. The six-page document identified the range of threats that Russia seeks to deter with its nuclear forces, clarified Russia’s general approach to nuclear deterrence, and articulated conditions under which Russia might use of nuclear weapons. The policy endorses the use of nuclear weapons in response to a non-nuclear strike due to the improved capabilities of U.S. conventional weapons.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin placed Strategic Rocket Forces's nuclear deterrence units on high alert, a move heavily condemned internationally. Putin warned that "whoever tries to hinder us in Ukraine would see consequences, you have never seen in your history". According to the US Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, Putin could potentially turn to nuclear weapons if he perceived an "existential threat" to the Russian state or regime; there has been speculation that he could regard defeat in Ukraine as an existential threat to his regime.

According to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Nature Food in August 2022, a full-scale nuclear war between the United States and Russia, which together hold more than 90% of the world's nuclear weapons, would kill 360 million people directly and more than 5 billion indirectly by starvation during a nuclear winter.

In September 2022, Putin announced the mobilization of Russian forces, and threatened nuclear retaliation against the west if Russia's territorial integrity was threatened.

On February 21, 2023, Putin suspended Russia's participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, saying that Russia would not allow the US and NATO to inspect its nuclear facilities. On 25 March 2023, Putin announced that Russia would be stationing tactical nuclear operations in Belarus. On 14 June 2023, Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko stated that Belarus had started to take delivery of nuclear weapons in a TV interview with Russian state channel, Russia-1.

Biological weapons

The Soviet Union covertly operated the world's largest, longest, and most sophisticated biological weapons programs. The program began in the 1920s and lasted until at least September 1992 but has possibly been continued by Russia after that. Thereby, the Soviet Union violated its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention, which it had signed on April 10, 1972, and ratified on March 26, 1975.

In the early 1970s, the Soviet Union significantly enlarged its offensive biological weapons programs. After 1975, the program of biological weapons was run primarily by the "civilian" Biopreparat agency, although it also included numerous facilities run by the Soviet Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Chemical Industry, Ministry of Health, and Soviet Academy of Sciences.

According to Ken Alibek, who was deputy-director of Biopreparat, the Soviet biological weapons agency, and who defected to the United States in 1992, weapons were developed in labs in isolated areas of the Soviet Union including mobilization facilities at Omutninsk, Penza and Pokrov and research facilities at Moscow, Stirzhi and Vladimir. These weapons were tested at several facilities most often at "Rebirth Island" (Vozrozhdeniya) in the Aral Sea by firing the weapons into the air above monkeys tied to posts, the monkeys would then be monitored to determine the effects. According to Alibek, although Soviet offensive program was officially ended in 1992, Russia may be still involved in the activities prohibited by BWC.

In 1993, the story about the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak was published in Russia. The incident occurred when spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military facility in the city of Sverdlovsk (formerly, and now again, Yekaterinburg) 1,500 km (930 mi) east of Moscow on April 2, 1979. The ensuing outbreak of the disease resulted in 94 people becoming infected, 64 of whom died over a period of six weeks.

As of 2021, the United States Department of State "assesses that the Russian Federation (Russia) maintains an offensive program and is in violation of its obligation under Articles I and II of the BWC. The issue of compliance by Russia with the BWC has been of concern for many years".

Chemical weapons

See: ru:Химическое_оружие_России (Russian chemical weapons)

Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention on January 13, 1993, and ratified it on November 5, 1997. Russia declared an arsenal of 39,967 tons of chemical weapons in 1997 consisting of:

• blister agents: Lewisite, mustard, Lewisite-mustard-mix (HL)
• nerve agents: Sarin, Soman, VX

Ratification was followed by three years of inaction on chemical weapons destruction because of the August 1998 Russian financial crisis.

Russia met its treaty obligations by destroying 1% of its chemical agents by the Chemical Weapons Convention's 2002 deadline, but requested technical and financial assistance and extensions on the deadlines of 2004 and 2007 due to the environmental challenges of chemical disposal. This extension procedure spelled out in the treaty has been utilized by other countries, including the United States. The extended deadline for complete destruction (April 2012) was not met. As of October 2011, Russia had destroyed 57% of its stockpile. Russia also destroyed all of its declared Category 2 (10,616 MTs) and Category 3 chemicals.

Russia has stored its chemical weapons (or the required chemicals) which it declared within the CWC at 8 locations: in Gorny (Saratov Oblast) (2.9% of the declared stockpile by mass) and Kambarka (Udmurt Republic) (15.9%) stockpiles already have been destroyed. In Shchuchye (Kurgan Oblast) (13.6%), Maradykovsky (Kirov Oblast) (17.4%) and Leonidovka (Penza Oblast) (17.2%) destruction takes place, while installations are under construction in Pochep (Bryansk Oblast) (18.8%) and Kizner (Udmurt Republic) (14.2%).

On September 27, 2017, OPCW announced that Russia had destroyed its entire declared chemical weapons stockpile. Ukraine claims Russia used chemical weapons in Mariupol.

Novichok agents

A range of Novichok agents were developed and tested in the 1970s and 1980s, but the intended Novichok weapons production site at the Pavlodar Chemical Plant in Soviet Kazakhstan was still under construction when it was decided to demolish the chemical weapons building in 1987 in view of the forthcoming Chemical Weapons Convention.

In March 2018, former GRU agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in Salisbury, United Kingdom by a chemical agent later confirmed to be Novichok. The incident raised new controversy over Russia's potential production and use of chemical weapons, with the United Kingdom accusing the Russian government or rogue Russian agents of orchestrating the attack, a claim Russia repeatedly denied.

In August 2020, Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was poisoned in Tomsk, Russia by a chemical agent later confirmed to be Novichok. A joint investigation by Bellingcat, CNN, Der Spiegel, and The Insider with contributions from El País implicates Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in the near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning, a fact denied by Russia. Navalny later called what appears to be one of the FSB agents responsible for the cleanup operation who indicates they were tasked to clean Navalny's underpants of Novichok.

Disposal facilities

The last Russian chemical disposal facility in Kizner, Udmurtia, was opened in December 2013.

See also

• 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Defense industry of Russia
• Father of All Bombs
• List of Russian weaponry makers
• Military doctrine of Russia
• New physical principles weapons
• Nuclear weapons and the United States
• Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom
• Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction
• Soviet biological weapons program
• United States and weapons of mass destruction

References

1. Sublette, Carey (December 12, 1997). "The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program". nuclearweaponarchive.org. nuclearweaponarchives. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
2. "Nuclear Notebook: Russian nuclear weapons, 2023".
3. "Nuclear Notebook: Russian nuclear weapons, 2023". |title=Status of World Nuclear Forces – Federation Of American Scientists |publisher=Fas.org |access-date=2021-02-07}}
4. Kristensen, Hans M.; Norris, Robert S. (May 3, 2016). "Russian nuclear forces, 2016". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 72 (3): 125–134. Bibcode:2016BuAtS..72c.125K. doi:10.1080/00963402.2016.1170359.
5. "Nuclear Notebook: Russian nuclear weapons, 2023".
6. ^ "Status of World Nuclear Forces – Federation Of American Scientists". Fas.org. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
7. Kristensen, Hans M.; Norris, Robert S. (2006). "Global nuclear stockpiles, 1945-2006". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 62 (4): 64–66. Bibcode:2006BuAtS..62d..64N. doi:10.2968/062004017. S2CID 145147992.
8. "Disarmament Treaties Database: 1925 Geneva Protocol". United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
9. "Disarmament Treaties Database: Biological Weapons Convention". United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
10. "Disarmament Treaties Database: Chemical Weapons Convention". United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
11. ^ Leitenberg, M., Zilinskas, R., & Kuhn, J. (2012). "Conclusion". In The Soviet Biological Weapons Program (pp. 698–712). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. Retrieved February 7, 2021, from JSTOR j.ctt2jbscf.30
12. ^ "Russia profile". NTI.org. 2009. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
13. ^ "Opening Statement by the Director-General to the Conference of the States Parties at its Sixteenth Session". OPCW. November 28, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
14. "Syria, Russia, and the Global Chemical Weapons Crisis". Arms Control Association. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
15. "The Budapest Memorandum and Crimea". VOA. March 2, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
16. ^ "START I". The Nuclear Threat Initiative. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
17. "START II". The Nuclear Threat Initiative. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
18. "SORT". The Nuclear Threat Initiative. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
19. "New START at a Glance | Arms Control Association". www.armscontrol.org. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
20. Majumdar, Dave (March 1, 2018). "Russia's Nuclear Weapons Buildup Is Aimed at Beating U.S. Missile Defenses". The National Interest. USA. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
21. "122 countries adopt 'historic' UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons". CBC News. July 7, 2017.
22. "Russia may have violated the INF Treaty. Here's how the United States appears to have done the same". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. February 7, 2019.
23. Kramer, Andrew E. (May 12, 2016). "Russia Calls New U.S. Missile Defense System a 'Direct Threat'". The New York Times. NYT.
24. Hurlbert, Heather (October 26, 2018). "Russia Violated an Arms Treaty. Trump Ditched It, Making the Nuclear Threat Even Worse". New York Magazine. USA. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
25. Andrew Osborn (November 2, 2023). "Putin withdraws Russia's ratification of global nuclear test ban treaty".
26. Cirincione, Joseph (October 22, 2013). Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-231-16404-7. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
27. ^ Новую тяжелую ракету "Сармат" будут делать в Красноярске Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 2 Feb 2015.
28. "РС-28 / ОКР Сармат, ракета 15А28 - SS-X-30 (проект) - MilitaryRussia.Ru — отечественная военная техника (после 1945г.)".
29. Gady, Franz-Stefan (January 12, 2016). "Russia to Test-Launch 16 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in 2016". The Diplomat.
30. "SS-30 ?? / R-X-? Sarmat New Heavy ICBM". globalsecurity.org. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
31. "Russia plans new ICBM to replace Cold War 'Satan' missile". Reuters. December 17, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
32. "Минобороны рассказало о тяжелой баллистической ракете - неуязвимом для ПРО ответе США". May 31, 2014.
33. John Pike. "Status-6 Ocean Multipurpose System".
34. ^ Why A Russian Super-Radioactive Atomic Torpedo Isn't The News You Think It Is
35. ^ "Russia reveals nuclear torpedo plan". BBC News. November 12, 2015.
36. ^ Diplomat, Franz-Stefan Gady, The. "Revealed: Russia's Top Secret Nuclear Torpedo". The Diplomat.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
37. ^ Russian Mystery Submarine Likely Deployment Vehicle for New Nuclear Torpedo. USNI News.
38. "What Is The Purpose Of Russia's Deadly Status-6 Torpedo". December 8, 2015.
39. ^ Pifer, Steven (November 18, 2015). "Russia's perhaps-not-real super torpedo". Brookings Institution. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
40. ^ Oliphant R. Secret Russian radioactive doomsday torpedo leaked on television. Telegraph. 13 Nov 2015
41. Lockie, Alex (December 24, 2016). "Trump questions the US's nuclear arsenal: Here's how the US's nukes compare to Russia's".
42. "Pentagon Confirms Russia's Thermonuclear Submarine Bomb Is Real". December 8, 2016.
43. "Putin boasts of new Russian nuclear weapons - ABC News". abcnews.go.com. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
44. "Russia has 'invincible' nuclear weapons". BBC News. March 1, 2018.
45. Russian military doctrine (in Russian)
46. Gessen, Masha (October 19, 2018). "Putin Lied About His Nuclear Doctrine and Promised Russians That They Would Go to Heaven". The New Yorker.
47. "Read the fine print: Russia's nuclear weapon use policy". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. March 10, 2022.
48. Blank, Stephen (February 25, 2018). "Getting Russia's nuclear strategy mostly right". The Hill. USA. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
49. Tyrants and the Bomb Archived June 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review, October 17, 2006
50. "Russian Officials Deny Claims Of Missing Nuclear Weapons". Retrieved October 24, 2014.
51. "Nuclear Dangers: Fear Increases of Terrorists Getting Hands on 'Loose' Warheads as Security Slips". October 19, 1997. Archived from the original on December 30, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
52. Russia secretly offered North Korea nuclear technology - by a Special Correspondent in Pyongyang and Michael Hirst, Telegraph, September 7, 2006.
53. "Russia expresses serious concern over DPRK nuke issue". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
54. "Guardian: Russia pushing 'unsuitable' nuclear power in Africa". Kyiv Post. August 28, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
55. ^ Stanislav Lunev. Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev, Regnery, 1998. ISBN 0-89526-390-4.
56. Steve Goldstein and Chris Mondics, "Some Weldon-backed allegations unconfirmed; Among them: A plot to crash planes into a reactor, and missing suitcase-size Soviet atomic weapons". Philadelphia Inquirer (15 March 2006) A7.
57. Novikova, Inna (March 29, 2004). "Куда исчезли 'ядерные чемоданчики'?". Pravda (in Russian).
58. "What's in Russia's New Nuclear Deterrence 'Basic Principles'?".
59. "Revelations about Russia's Nuclear Deterrence Policy". June 19, 2020.
60. "Putin signs Russia's nuclear deterrent policy". Associated Press. April 21, 2021.
61. "West slams Putin 'dangerous rhetoric' after Russian leader puts nuclear forces on alert". February 28, 2022.
62. "Putin implies nuclear attack if West interferes in Ukraine. Why it's not just an empty threat". CBC News. February 25, 2022.
63. "Putin prepping 'prolonged conflict' beyond Donbas, could escalate nuclear threats: Top US intel official". ABC News. May 10, 2022.
64. "Putin could use nuclear weapon if he felt war being lost – US intelligence chief". The Guardian. May 10, 2022.
65. Xia, Lili; Robock, Alan; Scherrer, Kim; Harrison, Cheryl S.; Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon; Weindl, Isabelle; Jägermeyr, Jonas; Bardeen, Charles G.; Toon, Owen B.; Heneghan, Ryan (August 15, 2022). "Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection". Nature Food. 3 (8): 586–596. doi:10.1038/s43016-022-00573-0. PMID 37118594. S2CID 251601831.
66. Diaz-Maurin, François (October 20, 2022). "Nowhere to hide: How a nuclear war would kill you — and almost everyone else". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
67. "World Nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia would kill more than 5 billion people – just from starvation, study finds". CBS News. August 16, 2022.
68. "Putin announces partial mobilisation and threatens nuclear retaliation in escalation of Ukraine war". TheGuardian.com. September 21, 2022.
69. "Putin pulls back from last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the US". CNN. February 21, 2023.
70. "Putin defends Ukraine invasion, warns West in address". NHK World. February 21, 2023.
71. "Putin Says Russia to Place Tactical Nuclear Arms in Belarus". Bloomberg News. March 25, 2023. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
72. "Belarus starts taking delivery of Russian nuclear weapons". Reuters. June 14, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
73. "Status of the Biological Weapons Convention". United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
74. Leitenberg, M., Zilinskas, R., & Kuhn, J. (2012). Beginnings of the “Modern” Soviet BW program, 1970–1977. In The Soviet Biological Weapons Program (pp. 51-78). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. Retrieved February 7, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jbscf.7
75. ^ Alibek, K. and S. Handelman. Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World– Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran it. Delta (2000) ISBN 0-385-33496-6
76. "2021 Adherence to and Compliance With Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments". United States Department of State. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
77. News Archived April 6, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
78. "Global Campaign to Destroy Chemical Weapons Passes 60 Percent Mark" Archived July 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. OPCW. July 8, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
79. "Путин поучаствовал в уничтожении последнего в России килограмма химоружия". РБК. September 27, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
80. "OPCW Director-General Commends Major Milestone as Russia Completes Destruction of Chemical Weapons Stockpile under OPCW Verification". OPCW.
81. "UK Delegation to the OPCW" (PDF).
82. "Did Russia really use chemical weapons in Ukraine? Experts are sceptical". TheGuardian.com. April 12, 2022.
83. "Kazakhstan – Chemical". Nuclear Threat Initiative. April 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
84. Bozheyeva, Gulbarshyn (Summer 2000). The Pavlodar Chemical Weapons Plant in Kazakhstan: History and Legacy (PDF) (Report). The Nonproliferation Review. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
85. "Inspectors back UK in spy poisoning row". BBC News. April 12, 2018.
86. "The curious case of Yulia Skripal's recorded phone call". DW.COM. April 6, 2018.
87. "Chemical weapons body confirms nerve agent Novichok in Navalny's blood". reuters.com. October 6, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
88. "FSB Team of Chemical Weapon Experts Implicated in Alexey Navalny Novichok Poisoning". bellingcat.com. December 14, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
89. "Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny dupes spy into revealing how he was poisoned". CNN.com. December 21, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
90. "New Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility Opens at Kizner in the Russian Federation".

Further reading

• Kostenko, Y., & D’Anieri, P. (2021). Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament: A History (S. Krasynska, L. Wolanskyj, & O. Jennings, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

External links

• Video archive of the Soviet Union's Nuclear Testing at sonicbomb.com
• Abolishing Weapons of Mass Destruction: Addressing Cold War and Other Wartime Legacies in the Twenty-First Century by Mikhail S. Gorbachev
• Russia's Nuclear Policy in the 21st Century Environment - analysis by Dmitri Trenin, IFRI Proliferation Papers n°13, 2005
• Nuclear Threat Initiative on Russia by National Journal
• Nuclear stockpile estimate fas.org
• Nuclear Notebook: Russian nuclear forces, 2006, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 2006.
• Current information on nuclear stockpiles in Russia. nuclearfiles.org
• Chemical Weapons in Russia: History, Ecology, Politics by Lev Fedorov, Moscow, Center of Ecological Policy of Russia, 27 July 1994
• History of the Russian Nuclear Weapons Program fas.org
• The Arsenals of Nuclear Weapons Powers nrdc.org
• Nuclear pursuits, 2012

• Nuclear weapons programme of Russia
• Weapons of Russia
• Weapons of mass destruction by country
• Nuclear power in Russia
• Nuclear weapons program of the Soviet Union
• Soviet chemical weapons program
• Soviet biological weapons program