Moscow: In his State of the Nation address on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia must stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the US does so.
As per an AP report, Russia today suspended its participation in a treaty aimed at keeping a lid on nuclear weapons expansion.
The NEW START treaty
The treaty called the New START Treaty was signed by Russia and the U.S. in 2010.
The treaty puts a cap on the number of long-range nuclear warheads the countries can deploy and also limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
Putin also said that Russia was not "fully withdrawing" from the treaty yet.
The state of the nation address is done by the Russian President annually and in 2022 Putin did not address the nation at all. This year's address comes just three days before the first anniversary of Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
(with inputs from agencies)
