As Russia warns of the rising risk of nuclear war, and relations with the United States sink into a deep freeze, communities close to a vast Soviet-era nuclear testing site in northern Kazakhstan have a message for leaders: "Let us be a lesson."
Hundreds of tests were carried out between 1949 and 1989 on the barren steppe near the city of Semey, formerly known as Semipalatinsk, close to the Kazakh-Russian border. The effect of radiation had a devastating impact on the environment and local people's health, and continues to affect lives there today.
Many nuclear proliferation experts believe resuming testing by either nuclear superpower more than 30 years after the last test is unlikely soon.
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