The Kremlin said today that it has not abandoned the moratorium on nuclear tests and denied a suggestion by a state television reporter that Moscow would test a thermonuclear weapon in Siberia as a warning to the West.

President Vladimir Putin, who rules the world’s largest nuclear power, has repeatedly warned the West that any attack on Russia could trigger a nuclear response.

The last nuclear test over the Soviet Union was in 1990. The United States conducted its last nuclear test in 1992, and France and China conducted their last nuclear tests in 1996, according to the United Nations.

The Kremlin said it had not abandoned the moratorium when asked about comments made by the head of state broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonyan. which hinted that Russia would test a nuclear bomb in Siberia.

“At the moment, we have not left the nuclear test ban regime,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“I don’t think it is possible to have such discussions now from an official point of view,” Peskov said, adding that Simonyan’s words did not “always” reflect Moscow’s official position.

Simonyan stated that the Ukrainian crisis is moving in the direction of a nuclear ultimatum and that the West will not stop until Russia sends a nuclear message.

“A nuclear ultimatum is becoming more imminent and more and more impossible to avoid,” Simonian said. “They won’t back down unless it’s painful for them.”

She joked that such an explosion would render electronic devices useless – so it would be easier for her to explain to her children why they are not allowed devices like iPads.

Russian state television’s nuclear rhetoric intensified late last year, but has been quieter in the first half of this year.

NUCLEAR AGE

The United States ushered in the nuclear age in July 1945 with a test of a 20 kiloton atomic bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico and then with the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 at the end of World War II.

The Soviet Union shocked the West by testing a nuclear bomb just four years later, in August 1949.

In the five decades between 1945 and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1996, 2,000 nuclear tests were conducted, 1,032 by the United States and 715 by the Soviet Union, according to the United Nations.

Putin in February suspended his country’s participation in the New START Treaty, Russia’s last major arms control treaty with Washington.

He also warned that if the United States resumes nuclear testing, then Russia will do the same.

The New York Times reported yesterday that satellite images and air force data show that Russia may be testing or has recently tested an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile..

“I don’t know where the New York Times reporters got this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Obviously, it is necessary to study the satellite images in more detail,” he added.

The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.