MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. Moscow, as per its previous statements, will not conduct any nuclear tests as long as the US also refrains from doing so, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.

"Nothing (regarding Russia’s position on nuclear tests - TASS) has changed," the senior Russian diplomat told reporters. "As previously outlined by the Russian president, we can conduct such tests, but we will not hold any, given the United States refrains from such steps regarding [nuclear] tests," he specified.

"I’d like to draw your attention to recent media reports saying that the infrastructure on Novaya Zemlya is fully ready. This was also in response to steps on the part of Washington which has been focused on upgrading the infrastructure they have at their disposal in this sphere in the past few years," Ryabkov added.

Head of Russia’s Central Testing Ground on the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago Rear Admiral Andrey Sinitsyn told Rossiyskaya Gazeta earlier that nuclear trials can be conducted there "at any moment."

The Soviet Union conducted as many as 715 nuclear tests, a key element toward building its nuclear shield. The last nuclear test was conducted at the Semipalatinsk test site on October 19, 1989 and at the Novaya Zemlya test site on October 24, 1990.