{{Short description|none}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox nukes |country_name={{ubl| Russian Federation | {{nobold| <small>(originally the Soviet Union)</small>}} }} |image_location=Russian Federation (orthographic projection) - All Territorial Disputes.svg |program_start=1942 {{small|(as the Soviet Union)}}<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sublette|first1=Carey|title=The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program|url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/Sovwpnprog.html|website=nuclearweaponarchive.org|publisher=nuclearweaponarchives|access-date=20 April 2017|language=en|date=12 December 1997}}</ref> |last_test=October 24, 1990 | largest_yield = 50 Mt (210 PJ) * Atmospheric – 50 Mt (30 October 1961) * Underground – 140 Kt (January 15, 1965) |total_tests= 715 detonations {{small|(as the Soviet Union)}} |first_test= August 29, 1949<br>{{small|(RDS-1)}} |first_fusion= November 22, 1955<br>{{small|(RDS-37)}} |peak_stockpile={{ubli| 46,000 warheads (1975) | 45,000 warheads (1990) }} |current_stockpile=5,459<ref name="thebulletin2025">{{Cite web|url=https://thebulletin.org/premium/2025-05/russian-nuclear-weapons-2025/|title=Russian nuclear weapons, 2025}}</ref> (2025) |current_usable_stockpile= 1,718<ref name="thebulletin2025"/> (2025 estimate) |maximum_range = ICBM: {{Convert|18000|km|0|abbr=on|sigfig=2}}<br /> SLBM: {{Convert|10000|km|0|abbr=on|sigfig=2}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.armyrecognition.com/army-2019_news_russia_online_show_daily_media_partner/army_2019_russian_army_discloses_rs-28_sarmat_icbm_characteristics.html|title=Army 2019: Russian army discloses RS-28 Sarmat ICBM characteristics|date=2 July 2019|website=Army Recognition}}</ref> |nuclear_triad = Yes |strategic_forces= {{tree list/start}} * {{Flagicon image|Flag of the Strategic Missile Forces.png}} Strategic Rocket Forces ** Intercontinental ballistic missiles * {{navy|Russia|name=Navy}} ** ''Delfin'' and ''Borei''-class submarines *** Ballistic missiles * {{Flagicon image|Flag of Russian Aerospace Forces.svg}} Aerospace Forces ** Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-160 *** Kh-55 and Kh-38 cruise missiles {{tree list/end}} |NPT_party=Yes (1968, one of five recognized nuclear-weapon states) |image_photo=Military parade on Red Square 2016-05-09 037.jpg|caption=A Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile on display in Red Square, Moscow.|tactical_forces={{tree list/start}} * {{army|Russia|name=Ground Forces}} ** 9K720 Iskander ** Novator 9M729 * {{navy|Russia|name=Navy}} * {{Flagicon image|Flag of Russian Aerospace Forces.svg}} Aerospace Forces ** nuclear-capable aircraft {{tree list/end}}|institution=Rosatom}}
{{Weapons of mass destruction}}
The Russian Federation possesses the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, with 5,459 nuclear warheads, with 1,718 deployed.<ref name="thebulletin2025" /><ref name="FAS">{{cite web |url=https://fas.org/initiative/status-world-nuclear-forces/ |title=Status of World Nuclear Forces |website=Federation Of American Scientists FAS}}</ref><ref name="armscontrol">{{cite web |title=Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance |url=https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat |website=Armscontrol.org}}</ref> It also inherited the expansive Soviet biological and chemical weapons programs, and is suspected to have continued them. It is one of the five nuclear-weapon states recognized under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and one of the five countries wielding a nuclear triad. It inherited its weapons and treaty obligations from the Soviet Union. Russia has been alleged to violate the Biological Weapons Convention and Chemical Weapons Convention.
{{As of|2025}}, Russia's triad of strategic nuclear weapons, at approximately 2,832 weapons,<ref name="fas">{{cite journal |last1=Kristensen |first1=Hans M. |last2=Korda |first2=Matt |last3=Johns |first3=Eliana |last4=Knight |first4=Mackenzie |date=2025-05-04 |title=Russian nuclear weapons, 2025 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00963402.2025.2494386 |journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |volume=81 |issue=3 |pages=208–237 |doi=10.1080/00963402.2025.2494386 |issn=0096-3402 |access-date=2025-10-26|url-access=subscription }}</ref> comprises 1,254{{Efn|Only 878 are estimated to be deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles at any one time.<ref name="fas"/>}} warheads on its Strategic Rocket Forces' 333 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 992{{Efn|Only 256 are estimated to be deployed on operational submarines (not undergoing overhaul) at any one time.<ref name="fas"/>}} warheads on its Navy's 192 RSM-56 Bulava and R-29RMU Sineva/Lajner submarine-launched ballistic missiles, on twelve ''Delfin'' and ''Borei''-class submarines, and 586{{Efn|Only 200 are estimated to be forward-deployed at the bomber bases at any one time.<ref name="fas"/>}} cruise missiles or bombs, for delivery by Long Range Aviation's 67 Tupolev Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers. Russia also possesses the world's largest arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, approximately 1,500, which can be delivered by land,{{Efn|The Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile, and Iskander-K and Novator ground-launched cruise missiles.<ref name="fas"/>}} sea,{{Efn|Various Russian submarines, surface ships, and naval aviation are estimated to be capable of launching cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and nuclear depth charges, and nuclear torpedoes.<ref name="fas"/>}} and air-launched{{Efn|The Tu-22M bomber, and fighters such as the Su-24, Su-34, and MiG-31K.<ref name="fas"/>}} weapons. The Russian Space Forces oversee early warning and ballistic missile defense, operating radars such as Voronezh and Don-2N, the Oko and EKS satellites,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Early warning - Russian strategic nuclear forces |url=https://russianforces.org/sprn/ |access-date=2026-02-18 |website=russianforces.org}}</ref> and the anti-ballistic missile A-135, S-400, and S-300 systems, all of which can themselves be tipped with nuclear warheads.<ref name="fas" />
Russia's predecessor state, the Soviet Union, held the largest nuclear arsenal in history, at 45,000 nuclear warheads in 1986.<ref name="NorrisKristensenGlobal">{{Cite news |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2968/062004017 |doi=10.2968/062004017 |title=Global nuclear stockpiles, 1945–2006 |year=2006 |last1=Kristensen |first1=Hans M. |last2=Norris |first2=Robert S. |work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=64–66 |bibcode=2006BuAtS..62d..64N |s2cid=145147992}}</ref> Russia and the United States together hold 88% of the world's nuclear weapons.<ref>{{cite news |date=26 September 2024 |title=Putin outlines new rules for Russian use of vast nuclear arsenal |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/26/putin-outlines-new-rules-for-russian-use-of-vast-nuclear-arsenal |work=Al Jazeera}}</ref> The New START treaty limited the number each state could deploy, until its expiration in February 2026. Officially, Russian nuclear weapons use requires an order from the President, co-signed by the Minister of Defence or Chief of the General Staff. Russia extends a nuclear umbrella to member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Russia’s nuclear umbrella extends to post-Soviet security bloc under new doctrine — Shoigu |url=https://tass.com/politics/1878843 |access-date=2026-03-31 |website=TASS}}</ref>
Since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia has frequently made threats characterized as nuclear blackmail. Since 2023, Russia has provided tactical nuclear weapons systems to Belarus.<ref name="fas" /> Ukraine destroyed several Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers in a large drone attack in 2025.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vinograd |first=Cassandra |last2=Jakes |first2=Lara |date=2026-01-09 |title=What to Know About the Oreshnik, the Missile Russia Used Against Ukraine |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/world/europe/oreshnik-ballistic-missile-russia-ukraine.html |access-date=2026-02-18 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Since 2024, Russian policy has broadly allowed nuclear first use, with strategic ambiguity on thresholds, in response to attacks on Russia with weapons of mass destruction, or to conventional attacks that critically threaten its sovereignty, territorial integrity, nuclear forces, or to large air and missile attacks.<ref name="fas" />
The Soviet Union carried out 715 nuclear tests, from its first test in 1949, until 1990.<ref>{{cite web |year=1996 |editor-last=Mikhailov |editor-first=V. N. |title=USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions: 1949 through 1990 |url=http://npc.sarov.ru/english/issues/peaceful/peaceful_e.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060622055801/http://npc.sarov.ru/english/issues/peaceful/peaceful_e.pdf |archive-date=2006-06-22 |publisher=The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy, and Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation |location=Sarov, Russia}} Official numbers and those in the table differ due to eleven tests, all fizzles, cited in other references and the one bomb left in its shaft when the Russians abandoned the Semipalatinsk site to Kazakhstan.</ref> This included its first thermonuclear test in 1955, and the 1961 Tsar Bomba, by far the largest nuclear test ever at 50 megatons. Testing occurred at Semipalatinsk, Novaya Zemlya, and Kapustin Yar. Russia signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996 but withdrew ratification in 2023. Russia's nuclear complex, managed by Rosatom, inherited the world's largest stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium, theoretically equivalent to over 40,000 weapons;<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 2023 Global Inventory Map of Fissile Material |url=https://www.recna.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/recna/bd/files/pu_heu_map202306_e.pdf}}</ref> Ural Electrochemical Combine remains the world's largest uranium enrichment site, and Mayak the world's second largest reprocessing site.<ref name="e917">{{cite web |last1=Frieß |first1=Friederike |last2=Kütt |first2=Moritz |last3=Podvig |first3=Pavel |last4=Mian |first4=Zia |date=2025-01-01 |title=Appendix 8A. Global stocks and production of fissile materials, 2024 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395998185_Appendix_8A_Global_stocks_and_production_of_fissile_materials_2024 |access-date=2026-02-18 |website=ResearchGate |pages=262–271}}</ref>
Russia inherited the Soviet biological weapons and chemical weapons programs, each the world's largest, and US intelligence assesses Russia maintains offensive biological and chemical warfare programs. Biological agents were researched from the 1920s, and in contravention of the Biological Weapons Convention from 1975. At its peak, the program employed ~65,000 people.<ref name="LeitenbergZilinskasKuhn2012">Leitenberg, M., Zilinskas, R., & Kuhn, J. (2012). "Conclusion". In ''The Soviet Biological Weapons Program'' (pp. 698–712). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. Retrieved February 7, 2021, from {{JSTOR|j.ctt2jbscf.30}}</ref> The 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax leak revealed the existence of the program to the Western Bloc. In 1997, Russia declared an arsenal of 39,967 tons of chemical weapons,<ref name="NTIchem" /><ref name="CSP16">{{cite web|url=http://www.opcw.org/index.php?eID=dam_frontend_push&docID=15203|title=Opening Statement by the Director-General to the Conference of the States Parties at its Sixteenth Session|date=28 November 2011|access-date=1 May 2012|website=OPCW}}</ref> officially declared destroyed in 2017. Russia was accused of using Novichok nerve agent in the 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and 2020 poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Russian forces admitted their use of CS gas during the Russo-Ukrainian war, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.<ref name="Field 2024 s609" /> Russia was also accused of using a radiological weapon in the form of polonium-210 in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London.
==Nuclear weapons==
===History===
====Soviet era==== {{main|Soviet atomic bomb project}}
==== Production sites ==== Three sites in the Russian SFSR and subsequently Russia produced 145 tons of weapons-grade plutonium (uncertainty ±8 tons) from 1948 to 2010, with a consistent production peak between 1967 and 1989. Following the Moscow test reactor F-1 in 1946, the Mayak site in Chelyabinsk-40 began construction. The first plutonium production reactor A-1 began operation in 1948, fuelling the RDS-1 test. The Mayak site received nine further reactors were constructed. Of these, four were used for plutonium production, the other six reactors primarily produced tritium for thermonuclear weapons. Plutonium was also produced by five reactors at the Siberian Chemical Combine in Tomsk-7, and three reactors at the Mining and Chemical Combine in Krasnoyarsk-26. The last plutonium production reactor in Russia is believed to have shut down in 2010. Mayak continues to operate two reactors for tritium and industrial radioisotope production.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Diakov |first=Anatoli |date=2011-04-25 |title=The History of Plutonium Production in Russia |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08929882.2011.566459 |journal=Science & Global Security |language=en |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=28–45 |doi=10.1080/08929882.2011.566459 |issn=0892-9882|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Russian sites also produced 1,250 tons of highly enriched uranium (uncertainty ±120 tons) from 1949 to 2010, excluding HEU produced for naval nuclear reactors. Of this, 500 tons was downblended by the Megatons to Megawatts Program, and a further hundred tons were used in production research reactors, nuclear tests, and other downblending programs. Russia is now believed to possess 656 tons between HEU stockpiles and HEU inside weapons themselves. This began with the SU-20 electromagnetic separation plant, but the Soviet project quickly followed the Manhattan Project's gaseous diffusion scheme, constructing the D-1 plant in Sverdlovsk-44, eventually becoming the Ural Electrochemical Combine. The D-1 plant could produce 0.01 million SWU/year. The development of the gas centrifuge and waves of modernizations brought the Ural Electrochemical Combine to 11.9 million SWU/year by 1993. Further enrichment plants were built at the Siberian Chemical Combine, the Zelenogorsk Electrochemical Plant and the Angarsk Electrochemical Combine.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Podvig |first=Pavel |date=2011-04-25 |title=History of Highly Enriched Uranium Production in Russia |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08929882.2011.566467 |journal=Science & Global Security |language=en |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=46–67 |doi=10.1080/08929882.2011.566467 |issn=0892-9882|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
====Post-Soviet era==== {{main|Succession, continuity and legacy of the Soviet Union#Nuclear weapons}}
{{see also|Ukraine and weapons of mass destruction|Kazakhstan and weapons of mass destruction}} Post-Soviet countries have signed a series of treaties and agreements to settle the legacy of the former Soviet Union multilaterally and bilaterally.
At the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet nuclear weapons were deployed in four of the new republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. In May 1992, these four states signed the Lisbon Protocol, agreeing to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, with Russia the continuator state to the Soviet Union as a nuclear state, and the other three states joining as non-nuclear states.
Ukraine agreed to give up its weapons to Russia, in exchange for guarantees of Ukrainian territory from Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, known as the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. China and France also made statements in support of the memorandum.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/the-budapest-memorandum-and-crimea/1862439.html|title=The Budapest Memorandum and Crimea|work=VOA News|date=March 2, 2014 |access-date=24 October 2014}}</ref>
==== Russian invasion of Ukraine ==== {{see also|Nuclear risk during the Russian invasion of Ukraine}} [[File:2023 Moscow Victory Day Parade 14.jpg|left|thumb|A Russian ICBM in Red Square during the Moscow Victory Day Parade, 2023.]] During the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin placed Strategic Rocket Forces's nuclear deterrence units on high alert, a move heavily condemned internationally.<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 28, 2022 |title=West slams Putin 'dangerous rhetoric' after Russian leader puts nuclear forces on alert |url=https://www.9news.com.au/world/russia-ukraine-update-peace-talks-kremlin-arrive-belarus-president-zelenskyy-refuses-location/6686c934-0364-45ea-90dc-2233fe745b16 |work=9News |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> Putin warned that "whoever tries to hinder us in Ukraine would see consequences, you have never seen in your history".<ref>{{cite news |date=25 February 2022 |title=Putin implies nuclear attack if West interferes in Ukraine. Why it's not just an empty threat |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/putin-ukraine-nato-nuclear-weapons-1.6362890 |work=CBC News}}</ref> According to the former US Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, Putin could potentially turn to nuclear weapons if he perceived an "existential threat" to the Russian state or regime;<ref>{{cite news |date=10 May 2022 |title=Putin prepping 'prolonged conflict' beyond Donbas, could escalate nuclear threats: Top US intel official |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/putin-prepping-prolonged-conflict-donbas-escalate-nuclear-threats/story?id=84626300 |work=ABC News}}</ref> there has been speculation that he could regard defeat in Ukraine as an existential threat to his regime.<ref>{{cite news |last=Borger |first=Julian |date=10 May 2022 |title=Putin could use nuclear weapon if he felt war being lost – US intelligence chief |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/10/putin-nuclear-weapons-us-intelligence-avril-haines |work=The Guardian}}</ref>
According to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal ''Nature Food'' in August 2022,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Xia |first1=Lili |last2=Robock |first2=Alan |last3=Scherrer |first3=Kim |last4=Harrison |first4=Cheryl S. |last5=Bodirsky |first5=Benjamin Leon |last6=Weindl |first6=Isabelle |last7=Jägermeyr |first7=Jonas |last8=Bardeen |first8=Charles G. |last9=Toon |first9=Owen B. |last10=Heneghan |first10=Ryan |date=15 August 2022 |title=Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection |journal=Nature Food |volume=3 |issue=8 |pages=586–596 |doi=10.1038/s43016-022-00573-0 |hdl=11250/3039288 |pmid=37118594 |s2cid=251601831 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free}}</ref> a full-scale nuclear war between the United States and Russia, which together hold more than 90% of the world's nuclear weapons, would kill 360 million people directly and more than 5 billion indirectly by starvation during a nuclear winter.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Diaz-Maurin |first1=François |date=20 October 2022 |title=Nowhere to hide: How a nuclear war would kill you — and almost everyone else |url=https://thebulletin.org/2022/10/nowhere-to-hide-how-a-nuclear-war-would-kill-you-and-almost-everyone-else/ |work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=16 August 2022 |title=World Nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia would kill more than 5 billion people – just from starvation, study finds |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nuclear-war-5-billion-people-starvation-deaths-study/ |work=CBS News}}</ref>
In September 2022, Putin announced the mobilization of Russian forces, and threatened nuclear retaliation against the west if Russia's territorial integrity was threatened.<ref>{{cite news |last=Sauer |first=Pjotr |date=21 September 2022 |title=Putin announces partial mobilisation and threatens nuclear retaliation in escalation of Ukraine war |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/21/putin-announces-partial-mobilisation-in-russia-in-escalation-of-ukraine-war |work=The Guardian}}</ref>
On February 21, 2023, Putin suspended Russia's participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States,<ref>{{cite news |date=21 February 2023 |title=Putin pulls back from last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the US |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/21/europe/putin-russia-new-start-nuclear-pact-intl/index.html |work=CNN}}</ref> saying that Russia would not allow the US and NATO to inspect its nuclear facilities.<ref>{{cite news |date=21 February 2023 |title=Putin defends Ukraine invasion, warns West in address |url=https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230221_43/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221133553/https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230221_43/ |archive-date=21 February 2023 |work=NHK World |language=en}}</ref> On March 25, 2023, Putin announced that Russia would be stationing tactical nuclear operations in Belarus.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 March 2023 |title=Putin Says Russia to Place Tactical Nuclear Arms in Belarus |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-25/putin-says-russia-will-station-tactical-nuclear-arms-in-belarus?srnd=fixed-income#xj4y7vzkg |access-date=25 March 2023 |work=Bloomberg News}}</ref> On June 14, 2023, Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko stated that Belarus had started to take delivery of nuclear weapons in a TV interview with Russian state channel, Russia-1.<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 June 2023 |title=Belarus starts taking delivery of Russian nuclear weapons |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-has-started-taking-delivery-russian-tactical-nuclear-weapons-president-2023-06-14/ |access-date=28 June 2023 |work=Reuters}}</ref>
On 25 September 2024, Putin warned the West that if attacked with conventional weapons Russia would consider a nuclear retaliation,<ref>{{cite news |date=27 September 2024 |title=The Unthinkable: What Nuclear War In Europe Would Look Like |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/nuclear-war-europe-russia-ukraine/33137063.html |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty}}</ref> in an apparent deviation from the no first use doctrine.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sauer |first=Pjotr |date=2024-09-25 |title=Vladimir Putin warns west he will consider using nuclear weapons |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/25/vladimir-putin-warns-west-nuclear-weapons |access-date=2024-09-26 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Putin also warned nuclear powers that if they supported another country's attack on Russia, they would be considered participants in such aggression.<ref>{{cite news |date=27 September 2024 |title=Putin's nuclear red line: Does he actually mean it? |url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence-and-security/news/putins-nuclear-read-line-does-he-actually-mean-it/ |work=Euractiv}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=27 September 2024 |title=Putin's nuclear threats: empty rhetoric or a shift in battlefield strategy? |url=https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240927-vladimir-putin-nuclear-weapons-declaration-more-than-an-empty-threat-ukraine-nato-us-war |work=France 24}}</ref> Putin has made several implicit nuclear threats since the outbreak of war against Ukraine.<ref>{{cite news |date=5 January 2024 |title=The US tests Putin's nuclear threats in Ukraine |url=https://www.vox.com/world-politics/353796/us-weapons-ukraine-russia-putin-escalation-nuclear |work=Vox}}</ref> Experts say Putin's announcement was aimed at dissuading the United States, the United Kingdom and France from allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied long-range missiles such as the Storm Shadow and ATACMS in strikes against Russia.<ref>{{cite news |date=26 September 2024 |title=Putin lowers bar for nuclear strike amid Ukraine attacks: Why it matters |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/26/putin-lowers-bar-for-nuclear-strike-amid-ukraine-attacks-why-it-matters |work=Al Jazeera}}</ref>
=== Nuclear testing ===
==== Soviet nuclear testing ==== {{Excerpt|Soviet Union and weapons of mass destruction|Nuclear testing}}
==== Alleged Russian nuclear testing ==== The US alleged in 2020 that Russia had carried out "nuclear weapons experiments that have created nuclear yield" between 1996 and 2019, but that it was not aware of such individual experiments in 2019. As Russia is a signatory of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, but the treaty is not in force, the legal status of such an experiment is unclear. The same report accused China's nuclear weapons program of constructing the infrastructure for undetectable low-yield tests, but did not allege any tests had occurred.<ref name="i508">{{cite web |title=Executive Summary on Findings On Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments, April 2020 |url=https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/EXECUTIVE%20SUMMARY%20OF%202020%20CR%20FINDINGS%2004.14.2020.pdf?mod=article_inline |access-date=2025-01-16}}</ref>
=== Arms reduction === {{Main|Megatons to Megawatts Program}}
The threat of nuclear warfare was a persistent and terrifying threat during the Cold War. At its height, the Soviet Union and United States each mustered tens of thousands of warheads, under the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. By the 1980s, both the United States and Soviet Union sought to reduce the number of weapons the other was fielding. This led to the opening of arms reduction talks in 1982.<ref name="START I">{{Cite web |title=START I |url=https://www.nti.org/education-center/treaties-and-regimes/treaties-between-united-states-america-and-union-soviet-socialist-republics-strategic-offensive-reductions-start-i-start-ii/ |access-date=2022-03-01 |website= Nuclear Threat Initiative |language=en}}</ref>
This culminated in the signing of the START I treaty in 1991: the first nuclear arms reduction treaty between the two global powers. This first treaty limited the number of deployed warheads in each nation to 6,000, nearly halving the prior 10,000 to 12,000 being fielded in 1991.<ref name="START I"/> The considerable success of START I, combined with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, led to the START II treaty. Russia never ratified the treaty, and it did not go into effect. An attempted START III was attempted but could not get past negotiations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=START II |url=https://www.nti.org/education-center/treaties-and-regimes/treaty-between-united-states-america-and-union-soviet-socialist-republics-strategic-offensive-reductions-start-ii/ |access-date=2022-03-01 |website=Nuclear Threat Initiative |language=en}}</ref>
Instead, the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty was passed in 2002, capping warheads at 2,200.<ref>{{Cite web |title=SORT |url=https://www.nti.org/education-center/treaties-and-regimes/strategic-offensive-reductions-treaty-sort/ |access-date=2022-03-01 |website= Nuclear Threat Initiative |language=en}}</ref> The current limitations stem from the New START treaty, ratified in 2010. It limits each side to 1,550 weapons. Nuclear bombers only count as one weapon each, even though they may carry up to 20, so the actual limit on the countries is slightly higher. The treaty is in force through to 2026.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New START at a Glance |website= Arms Control Association |url= https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/NewSTART |access-date=2022-03-01}}</ref>
After U.S. President George W. Bush withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Russia responded by building-up their nuclear capabilities, in such a way as to counterbalance U.S. capabilities.<ref>{{cite news |last=Majumdar |first=Dave |date=1 March 2018 |title=Russia's Nuclear Weapons Buildup Is Aimed at Beating U.S. Missile Defenses |work=The National Interest |location=USA |url=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russias-nuclear-weapons-buildup-aimed-beating-us-missile-24716 |access-date=26 October 2018}}</ref> Russia decided not to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted on July 7, 2017, by 122 States.<ref>{{cite news |date=7 July 2017 |title=122 countries adopt 'historic' UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons |work=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-treaty-ban-nuclear-weapons-1.4192761}}</ref> Most analysts agree that Russia's nuclear strategy under Putin eventually brought it into violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (although this is not confirmed).<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-02-07 |title=Russia may have violated the INF Treaty. Here's how the United States appears to have done the same |work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |url=https://thebulletin.org/2019/02/russia-may-have-violated-the-inf-treaty-heres-how-the-united-states-appears-to-have-done-the-same/ |language=en-US}}</ref>
According to Russian officials, the American decision to deploy the missile defense system in Europe was a violation of the treaty.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kramer |first1=Andrew E. |title=Russia Calls New U.S. Missile Defense System a 'Direct Threat' |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 12, 2016 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/world/europe/russia-nato-us-romania-missile-defense.html}}</ref> U.S. President Donald Trump announced on October 20, 2018, that the U.S. would no longer consider itself bound by the treaty's provisions, raising nuclear tensions between the two powers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hurlbert |first=Heather |date=26 October 2018 |title=Russia Violated an Arms Treaty. Trump Ditched It, Making the Nuclear Threat Even Worse. |work=New York Magazine |location=USA |url=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russias-nuclear-weapons-buildup-aimed-beating-us-missile-24716 |access-date=26 October 2018}}</ref>
On November 2, 2023, Putin signed a law that withdraws Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-revokes-russias-ratification-nuclear-test-ban-treaty-2023-11-02/|title=Putin withdraws Russia's ratification of global nuclear test ban treaty|author=Andrew Osborn|website=Reuters |date=November 2, 2023}}</ref>
===Delivery systems=== {{multiple image | align = right | total_width = 520 | image2 = Dnepr rocket lift-off 1.jpg | alt2 = | caption2 = | image1 = 10-7175833-k-549.jpg | alt1 = | caption1 = | image3 = Tupolev Tu-22M-3 taking off from Soltsy-2.jpg | alt3 = | caption3 = | footer = Examples of Russia's nuclear triad – a {{Sclass|Borei|submarine|0}} SSBN, an R-36M2 ICBM and a Tupolev Tu-22M strategic bomber }} [[File:RT-2PM2 Topol-M-05.jpg|thumb|The RT-2PM2 Topol-M is one of the most recent intercontinental ballistic missiles to be deployed by Russia]] [[File:ChemicalExercise2018-01.jpg|thumb|right|Soviet OTR-21 Tochka missile. Capable of firing a 100-kiloton nuclear warhead a distance of 185 km]]The exact number of nuclear warheads is a state secret and is therefore a matter of guesswork. {{As of|2025}}, the Federation of American Scientists estimates that Russia possesses 5,459 nuclear weapons, while the United States has 5,177; Russia and the U.S. each have about 1,700 active deployed strategic nuclear warheads. Russia's stockpile is growing in size, while the United States' is shrinking.<ref name=FAS /> Russia has six nuclear missile fields in Kozelsk, Tatishchevo, Uzhur, Dombarovsky, Kartalay, and Aleysk; nuclear missile submarines patrolling from three naval bases at Nerpich'ya, Yagel'Naya, and Rybachiy; and nuclear bombers at Ukrainka and Engels air bases.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cirincione |first1=Joseph |title=Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late |date=October 22, 2013 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-16404-7 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbwJAgAAQBAJ |access-date=March 15, 2022}}</ref> As of 2026, Russia operates 13 nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines, comprising five Delta-class and eight Borei-class vessels.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://thebulletin.org/premium/2026-05/russian-nuclear-weapons-2026/ |title=Russian Nuclear Weapons, 2026 |work=The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists}}.</ref> The RS-28 Sarmat<ref name=RS28>[http://www.rg.ru/2015/02/02/raketa-site-anons.html Новую тяжелую ракету "Сармат" будут делать в Красноярске] ''Rossiyskaya Gazeta'', 2 Feb 2015.</ref> (Russian: РС-28 Сармат; NATO reporting name: SATAN 2), is a Russian liquid-fueled, MIRV-equipped, super-heavy thermonuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile in development by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau<ref name="RS28" /> since 2009,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://militaryrussia.ru/blog/topic-435.html|title=MilitaryRussia.Ru — отечественная военная техника (после 1945г.) | Статьи|website=militaryrussia.ru}}</ref> intended to replace the previous R-36 missile. Its large payload would allow for up to 10 heavy warheads or 15 lighter ones,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gady |first1=Franz-Stefan |title=Russia to Test-Launch 16 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in 2016 |url=https://thediplomat.com/2016/01/russia-to-test-launch-16-intercontinental-ballistic-missiles-in-2016/ |work=The Diplomat |date=January 12, 2016}}</ref> or a combination of warheads and massive amounts of countermeasures designed to defeat anti-missile systems.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/ss-30.htm|title=SS-30 ?? / R-X-? Sarmat New Heavy ICBM|website=globalsecurity.org|access-date=17 January 2015|archive-date=February 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205165020/https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/ss-30.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=Reuters World |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-missiles-idUSBRE9BG0SH20131217 |title=Russia plans new ICBM to replace Cold War 'Satan' missile |agency=Reuters |date=17 Dec 2013|access-date=17 January 2015}}</ref> It was heralded by the Russian military as a response to the U.S. Prompt Global Strike.<ref name=invuln>{{cite news|url=http://newsru.com/arch/russia/31may2014/sarmat.html |script-title=ru: Минобороны рассказало о тяжелой баллистической ракете – неуязвимом для ПРО ответе США|date=May 31, 2014 |trans-title=The Ministry of Defense spoke about a heavy ballistic missile – an invulnerable response to the US missile defense|work=NewsRu}}</ref>
In 2015, information emerged that Russia may be developing a new nuclear torpedo, the Status-6 Ocean Multipurpose System,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/status-6.htm|title=Status-6 Ocean Multipurpose System|author=John Pike}}</ref><ref name="FTA">Why A Russian Super-Radioactive Atomic Torpedo Isn't The News You Think It Is [http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/why-a-russian-super-radioactive-atomic-torpedo-isn-t-th-1742131846]</ref><ref name=BBC>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34797252|title=Russia reveals nuclear torpedo plan|work=BBC News|date=November 12, 2015}}</ref> codenamed "Kanyon" by Pentagon officials.<ref name=Diplomat>{{cite web|url=https://thediplomat.com/2015/11/revealed-russias-top-secret-nuclear-torpedo/|title=Revealed: Russia's Top Secret Nuclear Torpedo|first=Franz-Stefan|last=Gady|date=November 2015|website=The Diplomat}}</ref><ref name=USNI20151204/> This weapon is designed to create a tsunami wave up to 500m tall that will radioactively contaminate a wide area on an enemy coasts with cobalt-60, and to be immune to anti-missile defense systems such as laser weapons and railguns that might disable an ICBM.<ref name=FTA/><ref name=BBC/><ref name=USNI20151204/><ref>{{cite news |first=Vikas |last=Shukla |date=December 8, 2015 |work=Value Work |url=https://www.valuewalk.com/purpose-of-russia-status-6-torpedo/|title=What Is The Purpose Of Russia's Deadly Status-6 Torpedo}}</ref><ref name="Pifer20151118">{{cite web|url=http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2015/11/18-russias-perhaps-not-real-super-torpedo-pifer |title=Russia's perhaps-not-real super torpedo |last=Pifer |first=Steven |website=Brookings Institution |date=November 18, 2015 |access-date=July 5, 2019}}</ref> Two potential carrier submarines, the Project 09852 ''Belgorod'', and the Project 09851 ''Khabarovsk'', are new boats laid down in 2012 and 2014 respectively.<ref name=Diplomat/><ref name="USNI20151204">[https://news.usni.org/2015/12/04/russian-mystery-submarine-likely-deployment-vehicle-for-new-nuclear-torpedo "Russian Mystery Submarine Likely Deployment Vehicle for New Nuclear Torpedo"]. ''USNI News'' December 4, 2015.</ref><ref name="Oliphant">{{cite news |last1=Oliphant |first1=Roland |title=Secret Russian radioactive doomsday torpedo leaked on television |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11991729/Secret-Russian-radioactive-doomsday-torpedo-leaked-on-television.html |access-date=30 November 2024 |work=The Telegraph |date=13 November 2015 |language=en}}</ref>
Status 6 appears to be a deterrent weapon of last resort.<ref name=Pifer20151118/><ref name=Oliphant/> It appears to be a torpedo-shaped robotic mini-submarine, that can travel at speeds of {{convert|185|km/h|knot|abbr=on}}.<ref name=Pifer20151118/><ref name=Oliphant/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tweet-us-nuclear-weapons-vs-russia-2016-12|title=Trump questions the US's nuclear arsenal: Here's how the US's nukes compare to Russia's|first=Alex|last=Lockie|website=Business Insider |date=December 24, 2016|access-date=December 26, 2016|archive-date=September 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904205656/https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-tweet-us-nuclear-weapons-vs-russia-2016-12|url-status=live}}</ref> More recent information suggests a top speed of {{convert|100|km/h|knot|abbr=on}}, with a range of {{convert|10000|km|abbr=on}} and a depth maximum of {{convert|1000|m|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a24216/pentagon-confirm-russia-submarine-nuke/|title=Pentagon Confirms Russia's Thermonuclear Submarine Bomb Is Real|date=December 8, 2016}}</ref> This underwater drone is cloaked by stealth technology to elude acoustic tracking devices.<ref name=FTA/><ref name=Oliphant/> [[File:Sarmat-launch-still.jpg|thumb|upright|Super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missile RS-28 Sarmat]] During an annual state-of-the-nation address given on March 1, 2018, President Vladimir Putin publicly claimed that Russia was now in possession of several new classes of nuclear weapons, including some with capabilities previously speculated to exist. Putin discussed several new or upgraded weapons, including a hypersonic glide vehicle known as the Avangard, capable of performing sharp maneuvers while traveling at 20 times the speed of sound making it "absolutely invulnerable for any missile defense system."<ref>{{cite news |work=ABC News (US) |url=http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/putin-boasts-russian-nuclear-weapons-53433951 |title=Putin boasts of new Russian nuclear weapons |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301144604/http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/putin-boasts-russian-nuclear-weapons-53433951 |archive-date=1 March 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
Putin discussed the existence of a nuclear powered underwater torpedo and a nuclear powered cruise missile (9M730 Burevestnik), both with effectively unlimited range. He discussed that Russia had tested a new class of traditional ICBM called the RS-28 Sarmat, which expanded upon the range and carrying capability of the Soviet-era Satan ICBM. Animations of these weapons were shown in front of the live and televised audience. Putin suggested that an online poll be conducted to give them official public names.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43239331|title=Russia has 'invincible' nuclear weapons|work=BBC News|date=March 1, 2018}}</ref>
=== Russian nuclear weapons sharing === {{See also|Nuclear sharing#Russian sharing with Belarus|Russian military presence in Belarus}} [[File:Army2016demo-075.jpg|left|thumb|The Russian Iskander-M nuclear-capable short-range ballistic missile was deployed to Belarus in 2022.]] [[File:Belarus_Air_Force_Sukhoi_Su-25_Pichugin-1.jpg|left|thumb|A Belarusian Air Force Sukhoi Su-25. It is believed that since 2023 some Su-25s are modified and crews trained for deploying Russian tactical nuclear weapons.]] On 27 February 2022, shortly after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Belarusians voted in a constitutional referendum with political and military reforms, including to repeal the post-Soviet constitutional prohibition on basing of nuclear weapons. The reforms also removed the country's neutral status and allowed permanent basing for the Russian Armed Forces.<ref name="f24-20220228">{{cite news |date=28 February 2022 |title=Belarus approves hosting nuclear weapons, Russian forces permanently |url=https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220228-belarus-approves-hosting-nuclear-weapons-russian-forces-permanently |access-date=26 August 2022 |publisher=France 24}}</ref> The referendum was criticized by the EU, UK, US, Canada, and other countries in the context of the censorship and human rights violations against the Belarusian opposition.<ref>{{cite web |author=Samuel Benson |date=2022-03-15 |title=U.S. sanctions Belarus president, more Russian officials |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/15/sanctions-belarus-president-russian-officials-00017327 |accessdate=2022-04-01 |publisher=Politico |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2022-02-28 |title=Canada condemns fraudulent constitutional referendum in Belarus |url=https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2022/02/canada-condemns-fraudulent-constitutional-referendum-in-belarus.html |accessdate=2022-04-01 |publisher=Government of Canada |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Ahmet Gurhan Kartal |date=2022-02-28 |title=Belarus constitutional referendum fails to meet standards, UK says |url=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/belarus-constitutional-referendum-fails-to-meet-standards-uk-says/2518378 |accessdate=2022-03-31 |publisher=AA |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2022-02-28 |title=Belarus: Statement by the High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell on the constitutional referendum |url=https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/belarus-statement-high-representativevice-president-josep-borrell-constitutional-referendum_en |accessdate=2022-03-31 |publisher=EU External Action |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2022-01-27 |title=Statement on Belarus Referendum |url=https://osce.usmission.gov/statement-on-belarus-referendum/ |accessdate=2022-04-01 |publisher=OSCE US Mission |language=en}}</ref>
At a meeting on 25 June 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko agreed the deployment of Russian short-range nuclear-capable missiles.<ref name="thebulletin-20220701">{{cite web |author=Nikolai N. Sokov |date=1 July 2022 |title=Russia-Belarus nuclear sharing would mirror NATO's—and worsen Europe's security |url=https://thebulletin.org/2022/07/russia-belarus-nuclear-sharing-would-mirror-natos-and-worsen-europe-security/ |access-date=26 August 2022 |work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists}}</ref> Lukashenko has described the weapons as "non-strategic".<ref name="u118">{{cite web |last=Karach |first=Olga |date=2018-08-01 |title=Nuclear weapons in Belarus: What we Know |url=https://www.icanw.org/nuclear_weapons_in_belarus_what_we_know |access-date=2025-07-24 |website=ICAN}}</ref> Russia supplied Belarus with nuclear-capable Iskander-M missile systems in 2023,<ref>{{cite web |title=Belarus MOD announces control of Iskander Missiles |url=https://www.mil.by/ru/news/157449/ |access-date=29 April 2025 |website=Belarus MOD}}</ref> with President Putin announcing the first delivery of warheads occurring as of 16 June 2023 in a speech at the St. Petersburg International Forum.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Putin |first1=Vladimir |date=16 June 2023 |title=Transcript: Plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, 16 June 2023 |url=http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/71445 |access-date=29 April 2025 |website=Website of the President of Russia}}</ref> These missile warheads are believed to have a variable yield between 5 and 50 kilotons. Additionally, Russia has completed modifications necessary for Belarusian Su-25 bombers to carry nuclear air-dropped bombs and the pilots have received training.<ref name="bbcrpb">{{cite news |date=26 June 2022 |title=Russia promises Belarus Iskander-M nuclear-capable missiles |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61938111 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> The yield of these bombs is not believed to exceed 20 kilotons.<ref name="u118" /> Belarus has reported full operation of the nuclear-capable Iskanders and Su-25s, and exercised their use with training nuclear warheads in May 2024.<ref>{{cite web |date=7 May 2024 |title=Belarus conducts tactical nuclear inspection together with Russia |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/belarus-conducts-tactical-nuclear-inspection-together-with-russia/77096432 |access-date=29 April 2025 |website=Swiss Info}}</ref>
{{As of|2025}}, there is no conclusive open-source evidence that Russian nuclear warheads and gravity bombs themselves are being stored in Belarus, although the most likely location if so is a Cold War-era depot near Asipovichy. On 10 December 2024, Lukashenko stated Belarus was hosting "dozens" of Russian warheads. Putin has also stated that its Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile could be deployed to Belarus in the second half of 2025, and that Belarus would play a role in nuclear targeting.<ref name="a245">{{cite journal |last1=Kristensen |first1=Hans M. |last2=Korda |first2=Matt |last3=Johns |first3=Eliana |last4=Knight |first4=Mackenzie |date=2025-05-04 |title=Russian nuclear weapons, 2025 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00963402.2025.2494386 |journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |volume=81 |issue=3 |pages=208–237 |bibcode=2025BuAtS..81c.208K |doi=10.1080/00963402.2025.2494386 |issn=0096-3402 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2025-07-24}}</ref>
Despite Lukashenko's statement on weapon usage "without hesitation in case of aggression against Belarus", which could indicate the transfer of operational control to Belarus, Putin emphasized Russian control was maintained, and General Secretary of the CIS Sergey Lebedev described a "double nuclear button" for weapon usage.<ref name="u118" />
===Military doctrine=== {{Main|Military doctrine of Russia}}
According to a Russian military doctrine stated in 2010, nuclear weapons could be used by Russia "in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it or its allies, and also in case of aggression against Russia with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened".<ref name="rus_mil_doc">[http://www.kremlin.ru/ref_notes/461 Russian military doctrine] (in Russian)</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Gessen |first1=Masha |title=Putin Lied About His Nuclear Doctrine and Promised Russians That They Would Go to Heaven |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/putin-lied-about-his-nuclear-doctrine-and-promised-russians-that-they-would-go-to-heaven |magazine=The New Yorker |date=19 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Read the fine print: Russia's nuclear weapon use policy |url=https://thebulletin.org/2022/03/read-the-fine-print-russias-nuclear-weapon-use-policy/ |work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |date=10 March 2022}}</ref> Most military analysts believe that, in this case, Russia would pursue an 'escalate to de-escalate' strategy, initiating limited nuclear exchange to bring adversaries to the negotiating table. Russia will also threaten nuclear conflict to discourage initial escalation of any major conventional conflict.<ref>{{cite news | last=Blank | first=Stephen | date=25 February 2018 | title=Getting Russia's nuclear strategy mostly right | url=https://thehill.com/opinion/international/375340-getting-russias-nuclear-strategy-mostly-right | work=The Hill | location=USA | access-date=26 October 2018 }}</ref>
Leaked documents seen by the Financial Times in 2024 described a threshold for the country's use of tactical nuclear weapons that is lower than Russia had previously disclosed.<ref>{{cite news |title=FT: Leaked files reveal Russian military's criteria for nuclear strike |url=https://kyivindependent.com/ft-leaked-files-russia-criteria-nuclear-strike/ |work=The Kyiv Independent |date=28 February 2024}}</ref> The document included training scenarios for a possible invasion by China.<ref>{{cite news |title=Russia prepared for nuclear attack on China, leaked papers reveal |url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/article/russia-nuclear-weapons-putin-leaked-military-files-drbzr3snk |work=The Times |date=28 February 2024}}</ref> Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre in Berlin told the FT: "This is the first time that we have seen documents like this reported in the public domain [...] They show that the operational threshold for using nuclear weapons is pretty low if the desired result can't be achieved through conventional means."<ref>{{cite news |title=Leaked Russian military files reveal criteria for nuclear strike |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f18e6e1f-5c3d-4554-aee5-50a730b306b7 |work=Financial Times |date=27 February 2024}}</ref> In 2024, Russian officials said that Russia's formal doctrine would be modified to lower the threshold for nuclear use.<ref>{{cite news |title=A new nuclear arms race is beginning. It will be far more dangerous than the last one |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/14/nuclear-weapons-war-new-arms-race-russia-china-us |work=The Guardian |date=14 November 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Putin Lowers Threshold for Using Nuclear Weapons in Updated Doctrine, Sparking Escalation Concerns |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/11/19/putin-lowers-threshold-for-using-nuclear-weapons-in-updated-doctrine-sparking-escalation-concerns-a87059 |work=The Moscow Times |date=19 November 2024}}</ref>
Russia has stated that it extends a nuclear umbrella over the Collective Security Treaty Organization member states, while its nuclear policy with Belarus includes additional provision for nuclear first use in response to conventional attacks which threatent Belarus' "very existence".<ref name=":1" />
==== 2020 deterrence state policy ==== On June 2, 2020, President Putin signed an Executive Order formally titled "Fundamentals of Russia's Nuclear Deterrence State Policy", in an unprecedented public release of an official document on Russia's nuclear policy.<ref>{{cite web |title=What's in Russia's New Nuclear Deterrence 'Basic Principles'? |url=https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/whats-in-russias-new-nuclear-deterrence-basic-principles/}}</ref> The six-page document identified the range of threats that Russia seeks to deter with its nuclear forces, clarified Russia's general approach to nuclear deterrence, and articulated conditions under which Russia might use nuclear weapons.<ref>{{cite web |date=June 19, 2020 |title=Revelations about Russia's Nuclear Deterrence Policy |url=https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/revelations-about-russias-nuclear-deterrence-policy/}}</ref> The policy endorses the use of nuclear weapons in response to a non-nuclear strike due to the improved capabilities of U.S. conventional weapons.<ref>{{cite web |date=April 21, 2021 |title=Putin signs Russia's nuclear deterrent policy |url=https://apnews.com/article/vladimir-putin-moscow-international-news-nuclear-weapons-politics-4f1772d79852e63ad9338ac557e009f1 |website=Associated Press}}</ref>
===Nuclear proliferation=== {{Main|Russia-China relations|Russia-India relations|Russia-North Korea relations|Russia-Iran relations}}
thumb|right|270px|Nations with large nuclear stockpiles with global range (dark blue) After the Korean War, the Soviet Union transferred nuclear technology and weapons to the People's Republic of China as an adversary of the United States and NATO. According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, "Khrushchev's nuclear-proliferation process started with Communist China in April 1955, when the new ruler in the Kremlin consented to supply Beijing a sample atomic bomb and to help with its mass production. Subsequently, the Soviet Union built all the essentials of China's new military nuclear industry."<ref name="bomb">[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmU3NjM4ZTg3NjViMTUyNWJmYWYzMDE4ZmRhOTQxZmI= Tyrants and the Bomb] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606154259/http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmU3NjM4ZTg3NjViMTUyNWJmYWYzMDE4ZmRhOTQxZmI= |date=June 6, 2009 }} – by Ion Mihai Pacepa, ''National Review'', October 17, 2006</ref>
Russia is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" (NWS) under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which Russia ratified (as the Soviet Union) in 1968.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of Soviet-era nuclear warheads remained on the territories of Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Under the terms of the Lisbon Protocol to the NPT, and following the 1995 Trilateral Agreement between Russia, Belarus, and the US, these were transferred to Russia, leaving Russia as the sole inheritor of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. It is estimated that the Soviet Union had approximately 45,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled at the time of its collapse, according to Viktor Mikhaylov, head of the Federal Agency on Atomic Energy (Russia).<ref name="CISAC Manage Plutonium">{{multiref2 | 1 = {{citation |author1=((Committee on International Security and Arms Control)) |title= Management and Disposition of Excess Weapons Plutonium |date=January 15, 1994 |publisher=National Academies Press |location=Washington, DC |isbn=978-0-309-05042-5 |ref=none |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IYEOUEgYhloC |access-date=14 December 2023 |language=en |quote=...{{nbsp}}Victor Mikhailov, head of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (MINATOM), reportedly indicated that the Russian{{nbsp}}... Mikhailov's figures are ...}} | 2 = {{cite news|title=Soviet Atom Arsenal Was Larger Than West Estimated |work= The New York Times |date=September 26, 1993|ref=none}} }}</ref> The collapse of the Soviet Union allowed for a warming of relations with NATO. Fears of a nuclear holocaust lessened. In September 1997, the former secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Lebed claimed 100 "suitcase sized" nuclear weapons were unaccounted for. He said he was attempting to inventory the weapons when he was fired by President Boris Yeltsin in October 1996.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.armscontrol.org/act/1997_09/lebedsept|title=Russian Officials Deny Claims Of Missing Nuclear Weapons|access-date=October 24, 2014}}</ref> Indeed, several US politicians have expressed worries and promised legislation addressing the threat.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/1010/nuclear_dangers.html?breadcrumb=%2F|title=Nuclear Dangers: Fear Increases of Terrorists Getting Hands on 'Loose' Warheads as Security Slips|date=October 19, 1997|access-date=October 24, 2014|archive-date=December 30, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230234553/http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/1010/nuclear_dangers.html?breadcrumb=%2F|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[File:Obama and Medvedev sign Prague Treaty 2010.jpeg|thumb|right|Dmitry Medvedev with Barack Obama after signing the New START treaty in Prague, 2010]] There were allegations that Russia contributed to the North Korean nuclear program, selling it the equipment for the safe storage and transportation of nuclear materials.<ref name="Korea">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/1523468/Russia-secretly-offered-North-Korea-nuclear-technology.html Russia secretly offered North Korea nuclear technology] – by a Special Correspondent in Pyongyang and Michael Hirst, ''Telegraph'', September 7, 2006.</ref> Nevertheless, Russia has condemned North Korean nuclear tests since then.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/28/content_11446860.htm|title=Russia expresses serious concern over DPRK nuke issue|access-date=October 24, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095937/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/28/content_11446860.htm|archive-date=March 4, 2016|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The Russian Federation has also wider commercial interests in selling the nuclear technology to India and Iran, reaching understanding memorandums in training their technicians in their respected nuclear programs. Russia is allegedly making efforts to build its influential hold in Africa for earning several billions of pounds by selling nuclear technology to developing African countries.<ref>{{cite news |date=28 August 2019 |last1=Shepeleva |first1=Anastasia |title=Guardian: Russia pushing 'unsuitable' nuclear power in Africa |url=https://archive.kyivpost.com/eastern-europe/guardian-russia-pushing-unsuitable-nuclear-power-in-africa.html |access-date=30 November 2024 |work=Kyiv Post}}</ref>
Russia has reportedly trained its navy to target European sites with nuclear-capable missiles in a potential conflict with NATO, according to leaked documents. The plans reveal a strategy for strikes across Western Europe, emphasizing Russia's reliance on nuclear weapons due to its conventional military limitations.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Seddon |first1=Max |last2=Chris |first2=Cook |date=2024-08-12 |title=Russian navy trained to target sites inside Europe with nuclear-capable missiles |language=en |work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/237e1e55-401d-4eeb-875b-03fe68f81575 |access-date=2024-08-20}}</ref>
===Nuclear sabotage allegations=== The highest-ranking GRU defector Stanislav Lunev described alleged Soviet plans for using tactical nuclear weapons for sabotage against the United States in the event of war. He described Soviet-made suitcase nukes identified as RA-115s (or RA-115-01s for submersible weapons) which weigh {{convert|50|-|60|lb|kg}}. These portable bombs can last for many years if wired to an electric source. "In case there is a loss of power, there is a battery backup. If the battery runs low, the weapon has a transmitter that sends a coded message – either by satellite or directly to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate."<ref name="Lunev">Stanislav Lunev. ''Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev'', Regnery, 1998. {{ISBN|0-89526-390-4}}.</ref>
Lunev was personally looking for hiding places for weapons caches in the Shenandoah Valley area.<ref name="Lunev"/> He said that "it is surprisingly easy to smuggle nuclear weapons into the US" either across the Mexican border or using a small transport missile that can slip though undetected when launched from a Russian airplane.<ref name="Lunev"/> Searches of the areas identified by Lunev – who admits he never planted any weapons in the US – have been conducted, "but law-enforcement officials have never found such weapons caches, with or without portable nuclear weapons" in the US.<ref>Steve Goldstein and Chris Mondics, "Some Weldon-backed allegations unconfirmed; Among them: A plot to crash planes into a reactor, and missing suitcase-size Soviet atomic weapons". ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' (15 March 2006) A7.</ref>
In a 2004 interview, colonel general of RVSN Viktor Yesin said that Soviet small-scale nuclear bombs have only been operated by the Army. All such devices have been stored in a weapons depot within Russia, and only left it for checks at the plant which produced them.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Novikova |first1=Inna |title=Куда исчезли 'ядерные чемоданчики'? |url=https://military.pravda.ru/46851-sadm/ |work=Pravda |date=March 29, 2004 |language=ru}}</ref>
===Radiological weapons=== The assassination of Alexander Litvinenko by Russian state agents with radioactive polonium was described as the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism using radiological weapons.<ref>"Ushering in the era of nuclear terrorism", by Patterson, Andrew J. MD, PhD, ''Critical Care Medicine'', v. 35, p. 953-954, 2007.</ref><ref>"Beyond the Dirty Bomb: Re-thinking Radiological Terror", by James M. Acton; M. Brooke Rogers; Peter D. Zimmerman, {{doi|10.1080/00396330701564760}}, ''Survival'', Volume 49, Issue 3 September 2007, pp. 151 – 168</ref><ref name="Bellona">[https://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/radioactive-waste-and-spent-nuclear-fuel/2006-12-radiological-terrorism-soft-killers Radiological Terrorism: 'Soft Killers'] by Morten Bremer Mærli, Bellona Foundation</ref>
=== Cultural impact === Following the expansion of the Russian Orthodox Church following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, an eschatalogical-political concept called Nuclear Orthodoxy gained some prominence. Nuclear Orthodoxy was further elaborated upon by Eurasianist ideologue Yegor Kholmogorov in 2009, where he argued that Russia must secure dominance over the West through military methods and nuclear blackmail. The same year, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow visited the city of Sarov, home to the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics and birthplace of Saint Seraphim of Sarov, where he said that Russia's nuclear weapons programme was the will of God.<ref name="Sumlenny">{{Cite web |last=Sumlenny |first=Sergej |date=11 October 2022 |title=How Russia Learned to Love the Bomb (Too Much) |url=https://cepa.org/article/how-russia-learned-to-love-the-bomb-too-much/ |access-date=30 January 2024 |website=Center for European Policy Analysis}}</ref>
==Biological weapons== {{Main|Soviet biological weapons program}}
The Soviet Union covertly operated the world's largest, longest, and most sophisticated biological weapons programs.<ref name="LeitenbergZilinskasKuhn2012"/> The program began in the 1920s and lasted until at least September 1992 but has possibly been continued by Russia after that.<ref name="LeitenbergZilinskasKuhn2012" /> Thereby, the Soviet Union violated its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention, which it had signed on April 10, 1972, and ratified on March 26, 1975.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Status of the Biological Weapons Convention|url=http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/bwc|access-date=2021-02-07|website=United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs}}</ref>
In the early 1970s, the Soviet Union significantly enlarged its offensive biological weapons programs.<ref>Leitenberg, M., Zilinskas, R., & Kuhn, J. (2012). Beginnings of the “Modern” Soviet BW program, 1970–1977. In ''The Soviet Biological Weapons Program'' (pp. 51–78). Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. Retrieved February 7, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jbscf.7</ref> After 1975, the program of biological weapons was run primarily by the "civilian" Biopreparat agency, although it also included numerous facilities run by the Soviet Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Chemical Industry, Ministry of Health, and Soviet Academy of Sciences.<ref name="Alibek">Alibek, K. and S. Handelman. Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World– Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran it. Delta (2000) {{ISBN|0-385-33496-6}}</ref>
According to Ken Alibek, who was deputy-director of Biopreparat, the Soviet biological weapons agency, and who defected to the United States in 1992, weapons were developed in labs in isolated areas of the Soviet Union including mobilization facilities at Omutninsk, Penza and Pokrov and research facilities at Moscow, Stirzhi and Vladimir. These weapons were tested at several facilities most often at "Rebirth Island" (Vozrozhdeniya) in the Aral Sea by firing the weapons into the air above monkeys tied to posts, the monkeys would then be monitored to determine the effects. According to Alibek, although Soviet offensive program was officially ended in 1992, Russia may be still involved in the activities prohibited by BWC.<ref name="Alibek"/>
In 1993, the story about the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak was published in Russia. The incident occurred when spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military facility in the city of Sverdlovsk (formerly, and now again, Yekaterinburg) {{convert|1500|km|abbr=on}} east of Moscow on April 2, 1979. The ensuing outbreak of the disease resulted in 94 people becoming infected, 64 of whom died over a period of six weeks.<ref name="Alibek"/>
In 2022 Russian Ministry of Defense started construction of a new massive facility at Sergiev Posad-6 site that hosted bioweapons research in Soviet times.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Satellite images show major expansion at Russian site with secret bioweapons past |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/interactive/2024/russia-biological-chemical-weapons-laboratory-expansion/ |website=The Washington Post}}</ref> The site belonging to 48th Central Scientific Research Institute (48 ЦНИИ) of the Russian Ministry of Defense, featuring biological security labs was even featured on Russian TV when a delegation from the ministry, then led by Sergei Shoigu visited it.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Krutov |first=Mark |last2=Dobrynin |first2=Sergei |date=2024-12-17 |title=Inside A Secret, Expanding Russian Lab Site With A Bioweapons Legacy |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-biological-weapons-laboratory-sergiyev-posad-shoigu-visit/33236030.html |access-date=2024-12-17 |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |language=en}}</ref> Also in 2022 the 48th Institute has registered a patent for "protective medium for freeze-drying of Yersinia pestis", a common biological weapon pathogen.<ref>{{Cite web |title=RU2800372C1 – ПРОТЕКТИВНАЯ СРЕДА ДЛЯ СУБЛИМАЦИОННОГО ВЫСУШИВАНИЯ КЛЕТОК Y. PESTIS ШТАММА EV – Яндекс.Патенты |url=https://yandex.ru/patents/doc/RU2800372C1_20230720 |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=yandex.ru}}</ref>
As of 2024, the United States Department of State "assesses that the Russian Federation (Russia) maintains an offensive [biological weapons] program and is in violation of its obligation under Articles I and II of the BWC. The issue of compliance by Russia with the BWC has been of concern for many years."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-Arms-Control-Treaty-Compliance-Report.pdf |title=2024 Arms Control Treaty Compliance Report |date=April 2024 |publisher=U.S. Department of State |access-date=2024-11-01}}</ref>
==Chemical weapons==
Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention on January 13, 1993, and ratified it on November 5, 1997. Russia declared an arsenal of 39,967 tons of chemical weapons in 1997 consisting of: *blister agents: Lewisite, mustard, Lewisite-mustard-mix (HL) *nerve agents: Sarin, Soman, VX
Ratification was followed by three years of inaction on chemical weapons destruction because of the August 1998 Russian financial crisis.
Russia met its treaty obligations by destroying 1% of its chemical agents by the Chemical Weapons Convention's 2002 deadline,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.opcw.org/html/global/ra_frameset.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040406043031/http://www.opcw.org/html/global/ra_frameset.html|title=Recent Updates|archive-date=April 6, 2004}}</ref> but requested technical and financial assistance and extensions on the deadlines of 2004 and 2007 due to the environmental challenges of chemical disposal. This extension procedure spelled out in the treaty has been utilized by other countries, including the United States. The extended deadline for complete destruction (April 2012) was not met.<ref name=sixty>[http://www.opcw.org/nc/news/article/global-campaign-to-destroy-chemical-weapons-passes-60-percent-mark/ "Global Campaign to Destroy Chemical Weapons Passes 60 Percent Mark"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711085547/http://www.opcw.org/nc/news/article/global-campaign-to-destroy-chemical-weapons-passes-60-percent-mark/ |date=July 11, 2010 }}. ''OPCW''. July 8, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.</ref> As of October 2011, Russia had destroyed 57% of its stockpile. Russia also destroyed all of its declared Category 2 (10,616 MTs) and Category 3 chemicals.<ref name=CSP16 />
Russia has stored its chemical weapons (or the required chemicals) which it declared within the CWC at eight locations. In Gorny (Saratov Oblast) (2.9% of the declared stockpile by mass) and Kambarka (Udmurt Republic) (15.9%) stockpiles have already been destroyed. In Shchuchye (Kurgan Oblast) (13.6%), Maradykovsky (Kirov Oblast) (17.4%) and {{ill|Leonidovka, Bessonovsky District|ru|Леонидовка (село, Пензенская область)}} (Penza Oblast) (17.2%) destruction takes place, while installations are under construction in Pochep (Bryansk Oblast) (18.8%) and Kizner (Udmurt Republic) (14.2%).<ref name=NTIchem>{{cite web|url=http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/russia/chemical/index.html/|title=Russia profile |website=Nuclear Threat Initiative – NTI.org|year=2009|access-date=2010-09-17|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605083958/http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Russia/Chemical/index.html|archive-date=June 5, 2011|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
In 1947 the 76th warehouse at Leonidovka, Penza District (:ru:Леонидовка (железнодорожная станция, Пензенская область)) was reorganized into the 608th Central Aviation Ammunition Base. In 1983, the base was renamed the 50th Arsenal of the Air Force. In February 1998, the unit was reassigned to the Chief of the NBC Protection Troops and received the name 50th Arsenal for Storage of Chemical Weapons of the 1st Category. In 2001, Military Unit 21222 became part of the Federal Directorate for the Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons and was named the Leonidovka Chemical Weapons Storage Facility. The depot was storing aviation chemical munitions filled with nerve agents such as sarin, Soman, and VX. The toxic agents stored there amounted to 17.2% of the total stockpiles in the Russian Federation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Воинской части в Леонидовке исполнилось 80 лет |url=https://russia58.ru/news/76683/ |access-date=2025-07-22 |website=russia58.ru}}</ref> The last Russian chemical disposal facility in Kizner, Udmurtia, was opened in December 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.opcw.org/media-centre/news/2013/12/new-chemical-weapons-destruction-facility-opens-kizner-russian-federation|title=New Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility Opens at Kizner in the Russian Federation|website=OPCW}}</ref>
On September 27, 2017, OPCW announced that Russia had destroyed its entire declared chemical weapons stockpile,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rbc.ru/society/27/09/2017/59cb9f2b9a79472490943b5b|title=Путин поучаствовал в уничтожении последнего в России килограмма химоружия|website=РБК|date=September 27, 2017 |access-date=2018-01-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.opcw.org/media-centre/news/2017/09/opcw-director-general-commends-major-milestone-russia-completes|title=OPCW Director-General Commends Major Milestone as Russia Completes Destruction of Chemical Weapons Stockpile under OPCW Verification|website=OPCW}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/CSP/C-22/national_statements/UK_Statement.pdf|title=UK Delegation to the OPCW}}</ref> even though they continued using Novichok agents. Ukraine claims Russia used chemical weapons in Mariupol.<ref>{{cite news | first=Dan |last= Sabbagh |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/12/did-russia-really-use-chemical-weapons-mariupol-ukraine-expert-remain-sceptical | title=Did Russia really use chemical weapons in Ukraine? Experts are sceptical | work=The Guardian | date=April 12, 2022 }}</ref>
===Novichok agents=== {{Main|Novichok agent}}
A range of Novichok agents were developed and tested in the 1970s and 1980s, but the intended Novichok weapons production site at the Pavlodar Chemical Plant in Soviet Kazakhstan was still under construction when it was decided to demolish the chemical weapons building in 1987 in view of the forthcoming Chemical Weapons Convention.<ref name=nti-201504>{{cite web|title=Kazakhstan – Chemical |website=Nuclear Threat Initiative |url=http://www.nti.org/learn/countries/kazakhstan/chemical/ |date=April 2015 |access-date=14 March 2018}}</ref><ref name=bozheyeva-2000>{{cite journal |pages= 136–145 |last=Bozheyeva |first=Gulbarshyn |issn=1073-6700 |journal=The Nonproliferation Review |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10736700008436816 |title=The Pavlodar Chemical Weapons Plant in Kazakhstan: History and Legacy |volume=7 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2000 |access-date=30 November 2024 |doi= 10.1080/10736700008436816|url-access=subscription }} [https://www.nonproliferation.org/wp-content/uploads/npr/72bozh.pdf PDF file link]</ref>
In March 2018, former GRU agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in Salisbury, United Kingdom by a chemical agent later confirmed to be Novichok.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43741140|title=Inspectors back UK in spy poisoning row|work=BBC News|date=April 12, 2018}}</ref> The incident raised new controversy over Russia's potential production and use of chemical weapons, with the United Kingdom accusing the Russian government or rogue Russian agents of orchestrating the attack, a claim Russia repeatedly denied.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dw.com/en/the-curious-case-of-yulia-skripals-recorded-phone-call/a-43287554|title=The curious case of Yulia Skripal's recorded phone call|date=April 6, 2018|website=Deutsche Welle}}</ref>
In August 2020, Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was poisoned in Tomsk, Russia by a chemical agent later confirmed to be Novichok.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-navalny-chemicalweapo-idUSKBN26R2GQ|title=Chemical weapons body confirms nerve agent Novichok in Navalny's blood|date=October 6, 2020|website=reuters.com|access-date=December 22, 2020}}</ref> A joint investigation by Bellingcat, CNN, Der Spiegel, and The Insider with contributions from El País implicates Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in the near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/12/14/fsb-team-of-chemical-weapon-experts-implicated-in-alexey-navalny-novichok-poisoning/|title=FSB Team of Chemical Weapon Experts Implicated in Alexey Navalny Novichok Poisoning|date=December 14, 2020|work=Bellingcat Investigations|access-date=December 22, 2020}}</ref> a fact denied by Russia. Navalny later called what appears to be one of the FSB agents responsible for the cleanup operation who indicates they were tasked to clean Navalny's underpants of Novichok.<ref>{{cite news |last1= Lister |first1=Tim |first2= Clarissa |last2= Ward |first3=Sebastian |last3=Shukla |title=Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny dupes spy into revealing how he was poisoned|date=21 December 2020 |work=CNN.com |url= https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/21/europe/russia-navalny-poisoning-underpants-ward/index.html |access-date=December 22, 2020}}</ref>
Another Russia chemical weapon is Kolokol-1, an aerosolized opioid incapacitating agent thought to be carfentanil.<ref name="Schwenk2018">{{cite journal | vauthors = Schwenk M | title = Chemical warfare agents. Classes and targets | journal = Toxicol Lett | volume = 293 | issue = | pages = 253–263 | date = September 2018 | pmid = 29197625 | doi = 10.1016/j.toxlet.2017.11.040 | url = }}</ref>
=== Use during the invasion of Ukraine=== In the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces reportedly used chemical weapons 465 times between February 24, 2022, and December 2023, usually as tear gas grenades.<ref name="Hambling 2023 z855">{{cite web | last=Hambling | first=David | title=What We Know About Russian Chemical Weapon Attacks | website=Forbes | date=29 December 2023 | url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2023/12/29/what-we-know-about-russian-chemical-weapon-attacks/ | access-date=23 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kondrat |first=Anastasiia |date=2023-12-27 |title=Russia has launched 465 chemical attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion |url=https://svidomi.in.ua/en/page/russia-has-launched-465-chemical-attacks-since-the-start-of-the-full-scale-invasion |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=Svidomi |language=en}}</ref> In May 2023, a television report on Russia's Channel One showed a Russian battalion commander talking about the effectiveness of chemicals used as weapons. The report also showed a drone dropping a tear gas grenade on a dugout.<ref name="Field 2024 s609"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Выпуск программы «Время» в 21:00, 2 мая 2023 года |url=https://www.1tv.ru/news/issue/2023-05-02/21:00#6 |date=2023-05-02}}</ref> In December 2023, the Russian 810th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade wrote about its use of drones to drop K-51 grenades containing CS tear gas on Ukrainian positions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Russian brigade admits dropping tear gas on Ukrainian troops, which would violate the UN Chemical Weapons Convention |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-admits-to-using-tear-gas-chemical-weapons-on-ukrainian-troops-2023-12 |last=Shoaib |first=Alia |date=2023-12-24 |website=Business Insider}}</ref> The use of tear gas is banned by international Chemical Weapons Convention and considered a chemical weapon if applied by military forces during warfare.<ref name="Field 2024 s609">{{cite news | last=Field | first=Matt | title=Russia appears to be using chemical weapons in Ukraine. And admitting it | work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | date=15 March 2024 | url=https://thebulletin.org/2024/03/russia-appears-to-be-using-chemical-weapons-in-ukraine-and-admitting-it/ | access-date=23 March 2024}}</ref> The United States accused Russia of also using Chloropicrin as a chemical weapon in Ukraine.<ref>{{cite news | last=Murphy | first=Matt| date=2 May 2024 | title=Russia using chemical choking agents in Ukraine, US says | work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68941220 | access-date=14 May 2024}}</ref> On 17 June 2025 Ukrainian Battalion K-2 destroyed a Russian BM-21 "Grad" launcher and then intercepted Russian radio traffic in which the soldiers warned units in their vicinity to protect themselves as the rockets were "loaded with chemistry".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2025-06-17 |title=Russian Troops Caught Off Guard as Ukraine Blows Up Chemical Loaded Grad Rocket System, Video |url=https://united24media.com/latest-news/russian-troops-caught-off-guard-as-ukraine-blows-up-chemical-loaded-grad-rocket-system-video-9185 |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=UNITED24 Media |language=en}}</ref>
==See also== * 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine * Defense industry of Russia * Father of All Bombs * List of Russian weaponry makers * Military doctrine of Russia * New physical principles weapons * Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction * Soviet atomic bomb project * Soviet biological weapons program
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==Further reading== * Kostenko, Y., & D’Anieri, P. (2021). ''Ukraine's Nuclear Disarmament: A History'' (S. Krasynska, L. Wolanskyj, & O. Jennings, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. *{{cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/01402390.2020.1818070?needAccess=true|title=Russian nuclear strategy and conventional inferiority|journal=Journal of Strategic Studies|year=2021|volume=44|number=1|first=Kristin|last=Ven Bruusgaard|pages=3–35|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250619213339/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/01402390.2020.1818070?needAccess=true|archive-date=2025-06-19}} *{{cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/00963402.2024.2314437?needAccess=true|title=Russian nuclear weapons, 2024|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|year=2024|volume=80|number=2|pages=118–145|first1=Hans|last=Kristensen|first2=Matt|last2=Korda|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250619214338/https://www.tandfonline.com/action/cookieAbsent|archive-date=2025-06-19}}
==External links== *Video archive of the [https://archive.today/20130104191058/http://sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=110 Soviet Union's Nuclear Testing] at [http://www.sonicbomb.com sonicbomb.com] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20040311171221/http://www.opcw.org/synthesis/html/s6/p4prt.html Abolishing Weapons of Mass Destruction: Addressing Cold War and Other Wartime Legacies in the Twenty-First Century] by Mikhail S. Gorbachev *[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00963402.2022.2038907?needAccess=true Russian nuclear weapons in 2022], by Federation of American Scientists *[http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Russia/index.html Nuclear Threat Initiative on Russia] by National Journal *[https://fas.org/nuke/guide/summary.htm Nuclear stockpile estimate] fas.org *[https://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/cbw/jptac008_l94001.htm Chemical Weapons in Russia: History, Ecology, Politics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511112840/https://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/cbw/jptac008_l94001.htm |date=May 11, 2021 }} by Lev Fedorov, Moscow, Center of Ecological Policy of Russia, 27 July 1994 *[https://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/lanl-history.pdf History of the Russian Nuclear Weapons Program] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606131634/https://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/lanl-history.pdf |date=June 6, 2021 }} fas.org *[http://bos.sagepub.com/content/68/1/94.full.pdf+html Nuclear pursuits, 2012]
{{Soviet Atomic Bomb Project}} {{Soviet nuclear weapons}}{{Nuclear weapons by country}}{{U.S.S.R. biological weapons}} {{Russian and Soviet missiles}} {{Armed Forces of the Russian Federation}} {{Russian invasion of Ukraine}}
Category:Nuclear weapons program of Russia Category:Weapons of Russia Category:Weapons of mass destruction by country Category:Nuclear weapons program of the Soviet Union Category:Soviet chemical weapons program Category:Soviet biological weapons program