MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/. Rumors about the possibility of Germany developing its own nuclear weapons are not groundless, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Lyubinsky said during a roundtable discussion at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"Discussions about the technical capacity of German specialists to develop their own nuclear weapon within a very tight timeframe have visibly intensified recently. These leaks are not groundless. Experience shows that where there's smoke, there's fire," the deputy minister said.

The senior Russian diplomat went on to say that research and development work with "a direct focus on nuclear weapons" is currently under way at key academic centers in Germany.

"We are talking about verified facts. Given Germany’s rich militaristic past and the current ruling elite’s excessive ambitions, which, as German Chancellor [Friedrich] Merz has emphasized, plans to once again turn the Bundeswehr into Europe’s strongest army, such nuclear aspirations evoke a certain degree of alarm, and not only for us," Lyubinsky said.