Russia issued a stark warning to the West, saying it would defend its national interests to the bitter end and was reconsidering how it would use its nuclear weapons in the future.
Currently, Russia‘s nuclear doctrine allows the Kremlin to deploy its fearsome arsenal in response to an atomic attack or in the event of a conventional strike that poses an existential threat to Russia.
However, Putin and his military commanders are reassessing their nuclear options, as tensions with the West increase.
Russia‘s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the previous guidelines were written in a different era and no longer applied.
The senior diplomat told Izvestia: “I am not anticipating the outcome, but I urge our adversaries to think about what the president is saying.
“They are literally playing with fire … and must learn not to indulge in dangerous illusions, but to try to look at the world soberly and understand that we have immutable national interests which we are prepared to defend to the end.”
Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Putin has consistently threatened to use nuclear weapons against the West.
That message has been repeatedly amplified by Kremlin propagandists, who have warned that Russia would not hesitate to unleash nuclear armageddon on the West.
Putin has also deployed nonstrategic atomic weapons to its ally Belarus, and declared the suspension of certain Kremlin obligations under the New START Treaty that limit US and Russian strategic nuclear forces.
Russia is the world’s biggest nuclear power and has a huge arsenal of weapons that it can deploy
According to The Federation of American Scientists, Russia has approximately 4,380 nuclear warheads, with 1,200 additional retired warheads awaiting dismantlement, as of March 2024.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday that there Kremlin had started updating its nuclear doctrine.
“President Putin has said that work is under way to bring the doctrine into line with current realities,” Peskov told a briefing, without elaborating.
A senior member of the Russian parliament said on Sunday that Moscow could reduce the decision-making time stipulated in official policy for the use of nuclear weapons if it believes that threats are increasing.
Rybakov said Moscow did not rule out downgrading diplomatic relations with certain Western countries if they failed to alter their “Russophobic” approach to ties.
“We do not rule out any options in the future,” he said. ” Everything will depend on how our adversaries conduct themselves.”