UPDATED: Putin issues warning to US with new nuclear doctrine
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday approved an updated nuclear doctrine, saying that Russia could consider using nuclear weapons if it was subject to a conventional missile assault on it supported by a nuclear power.
The decision to change Russia’s official nuclear doctrine is the Kremlin’s answer to a reported decision by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to fire American long-range missiles deep into Russia.
The updated doctrine, which outlines the threats which would make Russia’s leadership consider a nuclear strike, said an attack with conventional missiles, drones or other aircraft could be considered to meet these criteria.
It also said any aggression against Russia by a state which was a member of a coalition would be considered by Moscow to be aggression against it by the whole coalition.
Just weeks before the November U.S. presidential elections, Putin ordered changes to the nuclear doctrine to say that any conventional attack on Russia aided by a nuclear power could be considered to be a joint attack on Russia.
The 2-1/2-year-old Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis – considered to be the closest the two Cold War superpowers came to intentional nuclear war.
The Kremlin has warned that Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles against Russia could prompt a nuclear response.
Kremlin warns use of Western-supplied missiles against Russia could trigger nuclear response
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, revealed Moscow’s stance during his daily news briefing as he was asked about the significance of the changes to the nuclear doctrine approved by Vladimir Putin today.
According to state-run news agency Tass, he said the document “concerns the fact that the Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression with the use of conventional weapons against it” where that is deemed to have created “a critical threat to sovereignty or territorial integrity”.
When asked by journalists whether Russia would view the use of Western non-nuclear missiles by the Ukrainian armed forces as part of an attack by a non-nuclear state with the support of a nuclear state, and whether that would entail the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons, Tass quoted him as replying: “Yes, that is what is being discussed.”
The comments would appear designed to allude to the Biden administration’s decision to allow Ukraine to use US-supplied missiles to strike deep into Russia.
It should be noted at this point that Moscow has made a series of threats to the West over its support for Ukraine throughout the war, often invoking the spectre of a nuclear response.
However, most analysts have suggested the warnings will not actually be acted on and are simply designed to deter Western nations from providing Kyiv with military backing.
