“Putin may be developing a more nuanced informational response to the West’s impending approval of long-range strikes against Russia, WP writes”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
WP, citing officials close to senior Russian diplomats, reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be aware that Russian nuclear threats are beginning to lose their hold on Western officials. Putin may be developing a more nuanced informational response to the West’s future approval of long-range strikes against Russia, the newspaper writes.
An unnamed Russian official quoted by WP said that Russian authorities understood that nuclear threats “do not scare anyone,” and a Russian scientist with close ties to high-ranking Russian diplomats said that Russia’s partners in the Global South.
“ISW cannot independently verify the veracity of these Washington Post sources, but these reports are consistent with ISW’s various assessments that the Kremlin is using nuclear intimidation to promote Western self-restraint, and that such statements are not a sign of Russia’s readiness to use nuclear weapons,” he said. analysts
ISW notes that the Kremlin’s “barely veiled threats” regarding nuclear confrontation are aimed at disrupting and delaying key decisions in the West’s political discussions regarding further military aid to Ukraine.
At the same time, ISW continues to believe that Russia is “unlikely to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine or elsewhere.”
In connection with Russia’s war against Ukraine, Western countries have repeatedly expressed their fears about Russia’s possible use of tactical nuclear weapons. In Moscow, such a possibility was not directly rejected, while President Vladimir Putin referred to the nuclear doctrine, according to which the use of nuclear weapons is possible in the event of a threat to “the very existence of Russia.” So far, according to him, there was no need to use nuclear weapons.