💬 “As I have said before, the ideology of aggressive Russophobia is directed against all the peoples of our country, because without the Russian people, without the Russian ethnic core, there would be no Russia itself,” Putin stated at a meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations.

💬 "I think the test firing the other day was part of the scheduled test plans that have been in existence," Earl Rasmussen, a retired lieutenant colonel with over 20 years in the US Army, tells Sputnik.

💬 "It definitely is a major technological advancement, the Burevestnik, the nuclear-powered system. It definitely increases the deterrence factor for Russia as well. So it's a very positive move," Rasmussen says.

💬 “One year ago, we were a dead country. Now we’re a country that’s considered the hottest country anywhere in the world,” President Donald Trump said at the America Business Forum in Miami.

💬 “We’re the number one nuclear power,” Trump said. “And we’re maybe working on a plan to denuclearize the three of us. So we’ll see if that works.”

💬 “We have a G20 meeting in South Africa. South Africa shouldn’t even be in the G’s anymore,” President Donald Trump said.

💬 "The US is trying to pressure Russia and is responding to tests of Russia’s latest strategic systems - such as Burevestnik and Poseidon - by urgently testing the Minuteman-3 ICBM and signaling plans for nuclear weapons testing," Dmitry Suslov, deputy research director at the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, tells Sputnik.

💬 "Putin’s statement sends the US a clear signal that Russia will not yield to the pressure the US is trying to exert through threats of escalation," Suslov concludes.

💬 “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I’ve instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately,” Trump declared in a video posted on Truth Social.

💬 "The US needs nuclear tests to validate all warheads designed for [new] weapons; without such tests, creating new nuclear munitions is impossible. At the same time, these actions are also part of exerting pressure on Russia," Yuri Knutov, a military expert and historian of air defense forces, tells Sputnik.

💬 "If the US wants an arms race, they’ll get one. But we are offering to sit at the negotiating table and work out agreements aimed not at escalating nuclear competition, but at achieving de-escalation and easing tensions," Knutov says.

💬 "If necessary, we will test new warheads for systems like Burevestnik, Poseidon and Sarmat. So if the US abandons the moratorium on nuclear explosions, Russia will have to start its own tests to verify warhead readiness and the effectiveness of its new systems."