Vladimir Putin’s strange question to the director of the Russian nuclear research center

“And the soul?“This is the strange and disconcerting question that President Vladimir Putin has asked the director of the Kurchatov Institutethe country’s main nuclear energy research and development center, when cameras focused on him during a meeting held in his office in the Kremlin.

The Russian president, a self-confessed believer who enjoys the unconditional support of the Orthodox Church in the war in Ukraine, He smiled expressively while listening to his interlocutor’s response.

“AND the third priority (from the Kurchatov Institute) They are the soul and the intellect“, the head of the institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk, replied quickly, referring to theThe main lines of work of the centerled by nuclear energy and studies related to materials science.

Putin, who recently received an icon from the hands of the Orthodox Patriarch, Kirill, is a A staunch defender of Russia’s image as a Moorish reservel before Western liberalism.

Nuclear testing site

This meeting takes place on the day that Russia has announced that it has prepared the facilities of the Novaya Zemlya nuclear siteat the Arctic Pole, which was the scene of the last Soviet atomic test in 1990, response to the steps taken by the United States.

“This was also done in response to Washington’s steps, which in recent years has focused on improving infrastructure in this area,” he said. Sergey Ryabkovdeputy foreign minister, the agency reported RIA Novosti.

Ryabkov has thus confirmed the information that has appeared in the Russian press about the “full readiness” of the nuclear test site. “It is prepared for the resumption of large-scale testing activities. It’s totally ready (…) The personnel are ready. If the order comes, we can start the test at any time,” Rear Admiral Andrei Sinitsin, head of the training ground in the Arctic archipelago, told Rossiskaya Gazeta.

Sinitsin stressed that if the Russian authorities decide to resume the tests, this order “will be carried out within the established time frame.”

At the same time, Riabkov stressed that Russia’s stance on nuclear testing has not changed since the Russian president signed the law revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in November 2023.

“As determined and formulated by the President of Russia, we can carry out such tests, but we will not do so if the United States (also) refrains from such steps,” he said.

Ryabkov was responding to a question about whether Moscow will conduct nuclear tests in response to the West’s permission for kyiv to use its long-range missiles against targets on Russian territory.

Recently, Putin warned that If the West gives birth to kyiv, “it will mean that NATO countries, the US and European countries will be at war with Russia.”.

Some Russian politicians and analysts have in recent months urged the Kremlin to approve a nuclear test as a warning to the West for supplying arms to Ukraine.

The Tsar Bomba

Coinciding with the XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Novaya Zemlya hosted the test with the most powerful atomic bomb in historyknown as the Tsar Bomba.

The aerial test was carried out with the help of a Tu-95 bomber and the bomb was dropped by parachute, an explosion that was equivalent to 50 megatons.
The USSR carried out his last nuclear test -eight charges with a power of 70 kilotons- on October 24, 1990 also in Novaya Zemlya.