Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (Sep 25) announced changes in Russia’s nuclear doctrine, saying a nuclear power supporting another country’s attack on Russia will be considered a participant in aggression.
While addressing Russia’s Security Council, Putin cited a revised version of nuclear doctrine and said that an attack against Russia by a non-nuclear power with the support of a nuclear power will be seen as their “joint attack on the Russian Federation.”
However, the Russian leader didn’t specify whether Moscow could respond to such an attack with nuclear weapons.
“The conditions for Russia’s transition to the use of nuclear weapons are also clearly fixed,” Putin said, adding that Moscow would consider such a move if it detected the start of a massive launch of missiles, aircraft or drones against it.
“Russia reserved the right to also use nuclear weapons if it or ally Belarus were the subject of aggression, including by conventional weapons,” Putin said.
The previous version of the nuclear doctrine, issued by Putin in 2020, said Russia could use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state. Some hawks in the Russian military were not happy with this and called for lowering the threshold for nuclear use in order to “sober up” Russia’s enemies in the West.
The decision comes at a time when Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is travelling to the United States to persuade Kyiv’s allies to let Ukrainian forces use long-range missiles for launching strikes deep inside Russian territory. Zelensky is expected to present his ‘victory plan’ to the American leadership, which includes strikes deep inside Russia to force Moscow to come to the peace table.
(With inputs from agencies)