MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has declined to comment on remarks by Director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Robert Ashley Jr., who claimed that Russia was ‘probably’ conducting low-yield nuclear tests.
"No, I could not (comment on that statement - TASS). I don’t know what it is based on. Besides, several answers have already been given by our Foreign Ministry," the Kremlin spokesman said. Peskov also called on reporters to refer to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s answers.
Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Ashley said that "Russia probably is not adhering to the nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the zero-yield standard." However, he tried to avoid giving a straightforward answer when asked to clarify whether the US believed that Russia was actually conducting such tests. He just noted that, in his view, Russia has "the capability to do that."
The nuclear testing moratorium has been in effect in Russia for almost three decades. The last such test was conducted at the Novaya Zemlya test site on October 24, 1990.