How far will Russian President Putin go? The fear of a Russian use of nuclear weapons is great in the West. Moscow is now declaring that the most important task is “to avoid any military confrontation between nuclear powers.” Russian doctrine has been deeply defensive.
After speculation about a possible nuclear escalation in the Ukraine war, Russia has underlined the purely defensive character of its nuclear doctrine. In the current turbulent situation, the most important task is “to avoid any kind of military confrontation between nuclear powers,” the Foreign Ministry said in Moscow.
In its policy of deterrence, Russia adheres to the fact that nuclear war is inadmissible. There are no winners in such a war and it must never be unleashed. The Russian doctrine is deeply defensive: it only allows the use of nuclear weapons if Russia itself is attacked with weapons of mass destruction or in the case of a conventional attack “that threatens the existence of the state”. This is not subject to any interpretation or extensions.
Shortly after the attack on Ukraine on February 24, Russia raised its nuclear forces to a higher level of readiness, presumably to deter possible military supporters of Ukraine. The West recently speculated that Russia could respond to the late summer military failures in Ukraine by deploying a tactical nuclear bomb.
The newspaper “New York Times”, citing US information, reported that senior Russian military officers had considered using such a bomb. Putin was not involved in the discussion. The findings of the secret services in mid-October caused concern in Washington.
