Tell him it is a conventional explosive, and to be sure he is a good mile away before it goes off.
Excellent point. I think the Russians will try to do as the Soviets did. The question is how much better 2020s spysats, IT spyware, etc., are versus 1960s spycraft. Plus of course plain old HUMINT in what until recently was a fairly open country, but one of rampant cynicism and bribe-centric corruption.
Western intel may well be able to see all the prep. “Lotta prep over weeks, clear the area, no boom, lots more prep for another couple weeks, clear the area, boom!” would sure say something unflattering about their readiness.
Whether Western intel would ever share what they saw with the public is always a different question. But if Putin is crowing scarily about great testing successes proving the fearsome nature of his mighty Arsenal of Doom, one of the ways to deflate the effectiveness of that propaganda is to prove the lies behind it.
Unrelated to the above …
It’s also not unheard of for malfunctioning nukes to “fizzle”. Which is still a materially big & hence readily detectable boom, but one that’s self-evidently a lot less than any real weapon would produce. IIRC NK had one of those pretty early on and a good laugh was had worldwide at their cost.
The Russians, specifically Putin.
Napoleon and Hitler should be enough for anyone.
Another question: Where will Russia conduct these tests? All of their previous facilities are in now sovereign Kazakhstan. All that testing infrastructure needs to be built from the ground up unless the Russians have had the kind of foresight that is completly lacking in all of the other realms of their military complex.
Well of course we wouldn’t be taking their word for it. We didn’t need to take Kim’s word to know about his failed nuke tests, either. We spent a big chunk of the Cold War developing ways to detect nuke tests, successful and otherwise.
500m is enough for him … He’s a tough one - and will need no eye-protection either …