Putin Issues Orders for Nuclear Space Program

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued orders to Kremlin-controlled agencies regarding the development of a nuclear energy program for space.

The Russian state media outlet Tass on Thursday reported Putin gave instructions to the government space corporation Roscosmos and Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation to allocate funds for the creation of space nuclear energy by June 15.

Putin's announcement comes after a February warning from the White House that Russia has the capability for an anti-satellite space-based weapon while stressing that it is not operational.

Though a White House spokesperson didn't confirm at the time if there is any nuclear component to the anti-satellite weapon, ABC News reported U.S. intelligence found Russia was looking to put a nuclear weapon into space for use against satellites. A U.S. official also told The Washington Post that Moscow has been experimenting with how to use nuclear explosions or other methods to take out satellites.

The new instructions from the Russian president on space nuclear energy did not contain any mentions of nuclear weapons or anti-satellite devices. However, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said in February that the deployment of nuclear weapons or any weapons of mass destruction in space would violate a decades-old treaty.

The treaty Kirby referred to was an agreement signed by the U.S. and the former Soviet Union in 1967, which banned the placement of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space. After the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine over two years ago, Putin suspended his country's participation in the last remaining treaty with the U.S. that limited nuclear arsenals—the New START treaty.

Newsweek reached out to the White House and the Kremlin via email on Thursday night for comment.

Tass' Thursday report noted that Putin's recent orders came following a meeting with Russia's Cabinet of Ministers, during which they were instructed to allocate "starting from 2024, budgetary allocations from the federal budget in the amount necessary for the implementation of measures provided for by the federal project 'Development of Space Nuclear Energy in Russia.'"

Putin added that the government should pay special attention "to the implementation of measures to develop the existing scientific and technical basis in the field of space nuclear energy."

Last month, the Russian leader spoke about how placing a nuclear power unit in space was a priority for his country.

Russia "has good competencies and, moreover, even has such reserves that we can be proud of, which we can count on in the future," Putin said while citing a nuclear power unit space as an example, according to Tass.

Those comments from Putin came after the head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said a week earlier that Russia and China were "seriously considering" a project to install a nuclear reactor on the moon sometime between 2033 and 2035.