Russia has over 5,000 nuclear weapons: Where are they and who controls them?

Russian President Vladimir Putin on 21 February issued a nuclear warning to the West regarding Ukraine, suspending the key arms control treaty. He announced that new strategic systems have been activated, and warned that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.

But how large is Russia's nuclear arsenal, and who controls it?

Russia, which has inherited the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons, has the largest number of nuclear heads.

Putin controls about 5,977 nuclear heads, compared to 5,428, when American President Joe Biden controls them. These are the records of the American Federation of Scientists in 2022.

Some 1,500 of these nuclear heads are not used, but they are likely still in good condition, 2,889 are in reserve stocks, and about 1.588 are the deployed strategic nuclear heads.

About 812 are deployed on land-producing ballistic missiles, 576 are deployed on ballistic missiles launched by submarines, and another 200 are located on the basis of bombers, reports the Nuclear Scientists' Bulletin.

The United States has located about 1,644 strategic nuclear heads. According to reports by the American Federation of Scientists, China, there are 350 nuclear heads, France 290 and United Kingdom 225.

These figures show that both Moscow and Washington can destroy the world several times.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had the highest number of nuclear heads, about 40,000 soos, meanwhile, the US had about 30,000 nuclear heads.

The key factor is nuclear weapons - rockets, submarines, and bombers.

Russia appears to have 400 cross-circular nuclear ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear heads. According to the Bulletin of Nuclear Scientists, these missiles can carry up to 1,185 nuclear heads.

Russia has 10 submarines that can carry up to 800 nuclear warheads. There are also 60 to 70 nuclear bombers.

The US at Review on the 2022 Nuclear Position said Russia and China are expanding and modernising their nuclear forces, and that Washington will pursue an approach based on gun control to avoid the costly arms race.

Putin said he has information that the US is developing new types of nuclear weapons. Russia is modernising its nuclear weapons.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, few states have tested nuclear weapons, according to the Armed Control Society. The United States has conducted its final test in 1992, China and France in 1996, India and Pakistan in 1998, and North Korea in 2017.

The Soviet Union had conducted its last nuclear test in 1990.

The Russian president is the main decisionmaker when it comes to the use of Russian nuclear weapons, such as strategic and non-strategic ones, is said in Russia's nuclear doctrine.

The so-called nuclear bag or “Cheget” (appointed after Mount Cheget in the Caucasus Mountains), is with the president all the time. Russian Defence Minister, currently Sergei Shoigu, and Chief of General Staff, currently Valery Gerasimov, are also believed to have such bags.

Basically, the bag is a communications tool linking the president and his army and from there to missile forces through the very secret electronic command and control grid, Kazbek. Kazbek supports another system known as Kavkaz.

The images shown by the Russian television channel Ziesda in 2019 showed what was said to be one of the bags with a set of buttons. In a section called “kominte”, there were two buttons: a white key: “and a red “anulim”. The bag is activated by a special card, Ziesda reported.

If Russia thought it would face a strategic nuclear attack, the president, through bags, would send a direct order for the launch of the General Staff Command and reserve command units carrying nuclear codes. Such orders quickly pass into different communication systems at strategic missile forces units, which then attack the US and Europe.

If a nuclear attack were confirmed, Putin could activate the so-called Dead Hand “” or “Permiter”, which is the last tool: which is essentially the computers that decide the end of the world. A missile command centre would order nuclear attacks from all Russian large arsenal. / REL