Putin's nuclear warning may change the world for good

Sensible politicians in the West have always taken Vladimir Putin's words about nuclear deterrence seriously, Kremlin's official representative Dmitry Peskov said, TASS reports.

Photo: Pixabay by STRIEWA, PDM

"Not only this time, but also in the past, sensible heads of state, sensible politicians, analysts perfectly understand and understood the seriousness of President Putin's statements," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Peskov also said that a number of political forces understand this factor during the conflict in Ukraine, which became a stage of "unprecedented confrontation" due to the Western military aid to Kyiv.

President Putin has not held a permanent meeting of the Security Council on nuclear deterrence for more than a year. On September 25, Putin proposed amending the Russian nuclear doctrine to make it fit modern realities.

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the country Dmitry Medvedev, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Minister of Defense Andrei Belousov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin, as well as the heads of Roscosmos and Rosatom Yuri Borisov and Alexei Likhachev took part in the meeting.

The Russian doctrine of nuclear deterrence will now apply to a broader category of states and military alliances. In particular, Putin proposed to consider aggression from any non-nuclear state carried out with the participation or support of a nuclear state, as a joint attack of those countries on Russia.

"We see that the modern military-political situation is changing dynamically. We are obliged to take this into account, including the emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies. It is important to predict the development of the situation and, accordingly, adapt the provisions of the strategic planning document to current realities,” President Putin said at the meeting.

The conditions for Russia's use of nuclear weapons in response to aggression in the new version of the nuclear strategy have been formulated more clearly, Putin said. The document has been supplemented with a list of military threats that Russia will be forced to neutralise by means of nuclear deterrence.

Thus, Russia will use nuclear weapons in case of a massive launch of various air and space attack weapons, including drones, towards Russian territory, and if those weapons cross the Russian border.

"I'm talking about strategic or tactical aircraft, cruise missiles, drones, hypersonic and other aircraft," Putin said on September 25.

Aggression against Belarus may also lead to a nuclear strike from Moscow, Putin said.

"All these issues have been agreed upon with the Belarusian side, with the President of Belarus," the Russian leader noted. At the same time, Russia's response to an attack on allies was spelled out in the doctrine before, although it did not specify any countries.

The earlier editing of the document said: "Guaranteed deterrence of a potential enemy from aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies is one of the highest state priorities."

Russia takes a responsible approach to the issue of nuclear weapons and seeks to prevent their proliferation in the world, the head of state said.

"All clarifications [of the nuclear doctrine] have been profoundly verified. They are proportionate to modern military threats and risks in relation to the Russian Federation," Putin said.

The nuclear triad remains the most important guarantee of Russia's security and an instrument for maintaining balance in the world, he added.

Everyone should know that Russia will use nuclear arms to defend itself

In September, Sergei Karaganov, Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, said that Russia would have the right to strike a nuclear blow on Ukraine should the latter use long-range Western missiles against Russia. It goes about Ukraine's incursion into Russian regions as well, he added.

"The main goal of the doctrine should be to ensure that all current and future adversaries know that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons. This is not only our duty to our country and our citizens — this is our duty to the world," he said.

Putin's remarks about the need to change the Russian nuclear doctrine produced a bombshell effect around the world. Many publications, such as The Financial Times, assumed that Putin's remarks sent a clear message to Ukraine's Western allies, the UK and the USA in the first place, who intended to let Kyiv use their long-range weapons for strikes deep inside Russia.

The Ukrainian conflict has triggered the most serious confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Both Putin and US President Joe Biden had previously warned that a direct clash between Moscow and NATO could lead to a third world war. Former US President Donald Trump also spoke about the risk of nuclear war.

Russia is the world's largest nuclear power. Together, Russia and the US control 88 percent of the world's nuclear warheads, Reuters said.

Details

 
A nuclear triad is a three-pronged military force structure of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and strategic bombers with nuclear bombs and missiles. Countries build nuclear triads to eliminate an enemy's ability to destroy a nation's nuclear forces in a first-strike attack, which preserves their own ability to launch a second strike and therefore increases their nuclear deterrence. Only four countries are known to have the nuclear triad: the United States, Russia, India, and China. Israel is suspected to possess a nuclear triad, but its status is not confirmed.