(RIA Novosti) - Russia fulfills all its obligations under a moratorium on nuclear tests, the defense minister said.
"Russia ratified a treaty on nuclear tests but that does not mean that we have stopped work in the nuclear sphere," Sergei Ivanov said in reply to a question about Russia's possible resumption of nuclear tests if a country abandoned the moratorium, reports Trend.
Ivanov, who is currently inspecting Russia's central nuclear testing site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago's northern island in the Artic Ocean, said non-nuclear tests were currently being conducted at the site, which saw the Soviet Union's first nuclear test in September 1955.
"Some nuclear powers have not ratified the treaty. We understand the reality and maintain the site in a condition of permanent readiness," said Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister.