By Guy FaulconbridgeMOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin on Thursday held out the possibility that Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades and might withdraw its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty. The Kremlin chief said there was no need to change Russia's nuclear doctrine however, as any attack on Russia would provoke a split-second response with hundreds of nuclear missiles that no enemy could survive. "I think no person of sound mind and clear memory would think of using nuclear weapons against Russia," Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. He noted that the United States had signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty but not ratified it while Russia had signed and ratified it. In February, Putin suspended Russia's participation in the New START treaty that limits the number of nuclear weapons each side can deploy.

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Persons: Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Sergei Karaganov, Karaganov, Margarita Simonyan, UKRAINE Putin, Russia's, Guy FaulconbridgeEditing, Andrew Osborn, Andrew Heavens Organizations: Kremlin, State Duma, Inside, RT, United Nations, Soviet Union, United, Cuban Missile, West Locations: Russia, Moscow, Russian, Black, Sochi, West, United States, Inside Russia, Ukraine, Siberia, Ban, Soviet Union, UKRAINE, Afghanistan, Ukrainian