On the fourth day of the war, Putin resorted to blackmail with the “nuclear button”.
During a meeting with Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of Staff Gerasimov on February 27, Putin ordered the strategic “deterrence forces” to be put on special alert. In fact, the Russian “Fuhrer” reminded the world that he has nuclear weapons, and if necessary, they can be used. novyny.live.
We collected the opinions of experts who told why such a scenario is extremely unlikely.
Putin’s statement and the response of the Pentagon
The past three days have shown the ineffectiveness of the tactics the Kremlin has chosen for the war in Ukraine. Rocket, artillery shelling and air strikes, together with attempts to go deep into Ukrainian territories, do not bring results. From Saturday, the enemy was able to advance only in the southern direction, capturing Melitopol and Berdyansk. Large regional centers – Kyiv, Kharkov, Sumy, Chernigov, Kherson, Nikolaev – remain inaccessible to Russians. Blitzkrieg clearly failed. The war is becoming protracted, which means large military and economic losses for the Russian Federation.
On the fourth day of the invasion, Putin spoke of “the last argument.” He ordered the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff to transfer the strategic “deterrence forces” to a special mode of combat duty. Thus, the head of the aggressor country reacted to the latest sanctions of Western states.
“Putin ordered the transfer of the Russian deterrence forces to a “special combat duty regime.” Why? Because the US threatened to freeze the dollar assets of the State Bank of Russia. This is about 690 billion dollars. In essence, this is a declaration of war. Putin makes it clear that if the United States takes this step, then Russia will use nuclear weapons.” – wrote political expert Andrei Golovachev in his blog.
The US Department of Defense said they “have no reason to doubt the veracity of these reports.” At the same time, they noted that they are able to “protect themselves, allies and partners.” The Pentagon insists that such a step by Putin is not needed, since Ukraine and NATO have never threatened Russia.
Why Putin will not be able to press the “nuclear button”
Putin’s madness knows no bounds. Having lost touch with reality, the “bunker grandfather” can obviously give any order. And yet, is it worth fearing the use of nuclear weapons by Russia?
According to Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the President’s Office, there is no reason to be afraid of the implementation of Putin’s threats. Like, the use of nuclear weapons is not logical even for the Kremlin.
“Firstly, the destruction of the entire Ukrainian army by nuclear forces will lead to the fact that the European part of Russia and Belarus will become uninhabitable for a long period. It is unlikely that Putin is ready to pay such a price. If we strike one blow, expecting that we will break and give up, then we will not break and give up. ” he wrote on social media.
Secondly, according to Arestovich, in addition to political factors, one should take into account the technical procedure for the use of nuclear weapons, which is quite complicated.
“In order to approve the use of even tactical nuclear weapons, coordinated actions of at least seven people are needed – from Putin himself through the commander of a military unit to the direct operators of weapons. Even in the case of such a command, a failure may occur somewhere in this chain, since the executors clearly understand that the execution of such an order will be followed by the answer of those who also possess nuclear weapons. Although the civilized world has enough means to effectively respond to this egregious crime without a nuclear threat, he explained.
Thirdly, Arestovich noted, Putin needs Ukraine, while after the use of nuclear weapons, he will actually not be able to control its citizens, although this is impossible in any case.
“The whole story about nuclear weapons is an attempt at psychological pressure,” he concluded.
Gleb Pavlovsky is a well-known Russian political strategist. For more than ten years he worked for the Kremlin, was engaged in election campaigns and television propaganda, and later went over to the side of the opposition. Pavlovsky is convinced that there will be no nuclear war.
“This is a demonstration of the last argument remaining in Russia. There are no other arguments. From Putin’s point of view, the volume of sanctions already imposed is devastating for Russia. And he threatened in response with his destructive weapon, – said the political strategist.
At the same time, Pavlovsky said that “there is no need to wait for a nuclear war,” although de-escalation, in his opinion, will not come soon.
“The challenge today is not to de-escalate, the challenge today is to slow down the escalation. Here, I think this is the maximum prize for which we can fight,” – he said.
Does not believe in the use of nuclear weapons by Putin and Ukrainian political scientist Nikolai Spiridonov. According to him, the “nuclear button” cannot be controlled by one person, otherwise it would have long ago led to catastrophic consequences for the whole world.
“When they say that Putin can use nuclear weapons, this is a big exaggeration. If Putin gives such an order, then, most likely, he will be isolated, and the order will not be carried out. The “nuclear suitcase” cannot be controlled by one person; the Russian president does not have a monopoly on it. It’s like in a bank, when the door with access to finance cannot be opened by one person. Naturally, there are safeguards against the use of nuclear weapons. If one person had the right to use nuclear weapons, then the world would have been in a nuclear war for a long time, ” he said.
hronika.info
