The West gives an adequate assessment to the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia.
Western experts believe that Putin may roll the dice and it is impossible to stop him by persuasion. It appears that the West is accepting the option of using nuclear weapons in the Ukrainian conflict. If Russia does it first, the West will respond.
According to Bloomberg analysts the United States has several options. One of them is to respond similarly and drop a tactical nuclear bomb somewhere, for example, in the Arctic Ocean or in remote Siberian regions. Indeed, the USA may respond to any escalation as Washington will simply lift the commitment not to use nuclear weapons.
The problem is that this scenario will turn the confrontation into an apocalyptic picture. As a result, Russia and the United States will possibly exchange a few tactical strikes, BRIEF Telegram channel wrote.
Russia, which has parity with the US in strategic nuclear weapons, has about 10 times as many tactical nuclear warheads. Therefore, there will be the risk of nuclear Armageddon.
In another option, Washington could strike a conventional blow on the Russian forces, targeting, for example, a base from which a nuclear strike could be launched.
Putin may continue saying that he will use nuclear arms, but Biden's message to Putin is that the West will not sit back to watch the nukes flying in the sky.
Meanwhile, it appears that Moscow is looking for an option of direct dialogue with Washington. One may call it a division of spheres of influence or something else. The main addressee is Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. The latter would probably be up for it, but the authorities in Kyiv have not shown any reaction yet.
This could be the background for today's statement from the Kremlin. Russia needs negotiations with the Ukrainian side to achieve its goals in the special operation, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, told reporters on September 23. However, the Kremlin sees no prerequisites for such negotiations.
"The negotiation process, of course, is in demand. It is in demand to achieve our goals. But, as we have already said, we do not see any prerequisites for the negotiation process,” Peskov said during the press call.
Arkady Dubnov, a political scientist:
By agreeing to the exchange, Moscow is signalling its readiness for negotiations with Kyiv. Possibly, as they say, without preconditions. This is what China, Turkey, Kazakhstan and other Russia-friendly countries have been pushing Russia for recently. If the version about the signal is correct, it is certainly more convenient to conduct them in the conditions of the end of the special operation.
The United States has been warning the Russian leadership privately of grave consequences should Russia strike a nuclear blow, The Washington Post said. Washington's messages to Moscow support statements that President Joe Biden and his allies make publicly.
The Security Council of Russia said on September 23 that one needs to actively study the experience of settling the Caribbean crisis.
The experience of settling the Caribbean crisis should be studied already now, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Venediktov said at a conference on the 60th anniversary of the Caribbean crisis, TASS reports.
“The events of 1962 serve as an example of how two superpowers can put aside their profound ideological differences that divide them in the name of joint constructive work for the benefit of all mankind,” he said on September 23.
That is why, Venediktov continued, the experience of the successful resolution of the Caribbean crisis, as well as a number of other equally dangerous episodes of the Soviet-American confrontation, should be studied today, as the time "when the collective West, led by Washington, officially declared a new cold war against Russia."
Does it mean that the nuclear Armageddon is not an option?