Russia says Severodvinsk test not nuclear-related
A handout photo made available by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization shows the Infrasound Station IS43 Dubna, which is part of the global system designed to detect nuclear explosions, in Russia, on April 6, 2009. The photo was issued on August 21, 2019.
Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the accident at a naval testing site near Severodvinsk is not related to nuclear tests, and did not fall into the scope of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.
The test was rather "related to the development of weapons, which we had to start creating as one of the retaliatory measures in connection with US unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002," the ministry quoted Alexei Karpov, Russian representative to the CTBTO, as saying.
Karpov made the remarks at the 53rd Session of the Working Group on Verification of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission in Vienna, according to the ministry.
Five Russian nuclear experts were killed and at least six others injured in a blast during a missile test in the country's northwestern Arkhangelsk region on August 8.
Russian Defense Ministry said no change in radiation was detected following the accident, while local authorities in the nearby city of Severodvinsk reported a brief spike in radiation.
Karpov said that the radiation in related area is "at a normal level," and poses no danger to life and health.
"There is no question of any environmental disaster, as some media are trying to file, neither in the area of the incident, nor beyond," he said.
