Nuclear Issue, or How the United States Is Driving the World Toward the Point of No Return

Nuclear doomsday clock: scientists set it at 89 seconds to midnight at the beginning of this year. What is the new countdown now, after Trump's statements?

The order from the White House to American military and scientific experts to immediately begin testing nuclear weapons is a shot from the starting pistol. Will a race begin? Preparations are underway. What is the distance? Years, even decades. What will the victor be rewarded with? Nothing — there will be no reward.

Donald Trump is as chaotic in his methods of achieving goals as he is rapid in changing them. The American president, waltzing in his images through the not-yet-built ballroom of the White House, sometimes tipstoe, sometimes stomps, over the red lines bordering the dance floor, and it seems that either he will soon fall out of bounds or ascend to an unknown height.

Donald Trump, President of the USA:

"We won the First World War. We won the Second World War. We won all wars between them and all wars before them. We have never lost. And now, we are not losing wars. Sometimes, we simply don’t fight to win. Do you understand? We stay in countries for 15 years, just bomb everyone to smithereens, making life unbearable for all. No one knows why we do this. These wars never end. But we’ve made it clear that the era of political correctness in our military is over. We don’t want to get involved in wars. I’ve restructured the army. We have the most powerful military in the world. We’ve upgraded our nuclear arsenal. We are a nuclear superpower number one. Russia is second. China is far behind in third place. But they will catch up with us in four or five years. They want to catch us and will be able to do so. This year, we are investing a trillion dollars in the US armed forces — the largest sum we have ever spent."

Together, Russia and the USA possess 90 percent of the world's nuclear arsenal. An extremely dangerous cargo! The US intends to find ways to test it and, at the same time, increase its stockpile. Different sources report varying numbers of nuclear warheads held by the US and Russia. The information is classified, and what should be publicly known is no longer shared.

Initially, the US and then Russia, by mirror measures, develop their arsenals. The approximate figures are nearly 5,500 nuclear warheads for Russia and about 5,200 for the US. Many types of American nuclear weapons or delivery systems are outdated or undergoing long-term modernization, which is delayed, postponed, and increasingly costly. Nonetheless, Trump remains confident: the US is the leader. Moscow has its own opinion.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian president:

"Our nuclear triad has been modernized. It is practically the newest nuclear triad in the world. A lot of work has been done to reliably guarantee our security. And the necessity of those decisions made long ago is confirmed by the current situation."

Alexander Korinenko, political scientist (Moldova):

"When it comes to nuclear weapons, Mr. Trump claims that America is the most armed country in terms of nuclear warheads. That’s not entirely accurate. As far as I know, Russia has a larger nuclear arsenal. But even so, we understand that in a conflict, a nuclear war would have no winners — the world would be destroyed. That’s certain. So, regardless of the number of nuclear missiles, both Russia and the US have enough to plunge the world into the Stone Age. As Einstein said: 'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.' Leaders in Moscow and Washington are well aware of this."

The arms race, demonstrations, buildup, and use of nuclear weapons have once again become elements of global politics. Moreover, the US is lagging behind Russia in terms of missile defense systems, but plans to fix this in the coming years with the "Golden Dome" missile defense system.

And the question remains: how much more confident and reckless will Washington behave now?