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I heard the Russians were insane. That was the narrative. They were mad lunatics, hellbent on conquering Europe.
Putin is so completely unhinged, I was told, that he thought he was going to conquer a country of 40 million people with 150,000 troops. He was whacked out of his mind. A certified madman.
But then we start talking about “Russia is saying they will fire nukes,” and all of a sudden the American media is like “well, they are far too reasonable to do anything like that – do not worry, the Russians just get it.”
Russia continues to say they are going to fire nukes, and the media continues to downplay this.
Russia will make changes to its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it regards as Western escalation in the war in Ukraine, state media quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday.
The existing nuclear doctrine, set out in a decree by President Vladimir Putin in 2020, says Russia may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state.
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Some hawks among Russia’s military analysts have urged Putin to lower the threshold for nuclear use in order to “sober up” Russia’s enemies in the West.
Who is saying that?
If that’s the plan it’s clearly not going to work.
It seems more likely that they are actually getting ready to fire nukes. It’s not clear that they’re playing a game here.
Putin said in June that the nuclear doctrine was a “living instrument” that could change, depending on world events. Ryabkov’s comments on Sunday were the clearest statement yet that changes would indeed be made.
“The work is at an advanced stage, and there is a clear intent to make corrections,” state news agency TASS cited Ryabkov as saying.
He said the decision is “connected with the escalation course of our Western adversaries” in connection with the Ukraine conflict.
Look – there is no doubt at all in my mind that Russia will fire nukes before it loses the war.
That is either insane or it isn’t, but it is the situation.
Framing this as “oh, they’re just faking it, don’t worry” is wrong and it certainly does not line up with the narrative about the Russians being a bunch of lunatics.
Russia has delivered a chilling warning to the West by amending its nuclear doctrine to allow for a first strike if the country perceives itself to be under serious threat.
This move comes as Russia accuses Western powers of plotting to use Ukraine as a staging ground to… pic.twitter.com/LBM7CK6gSR
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) August 27, 2024