Sunday, June 7, 2020

Putin Goes Public with Doctrine on First Use of Nuclear Weapons, Felgengauer Says


Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 4 – Two days ago, Vladimir Putin went public about the conditions under which Moscow would use nuclear weapons, including a first strike against countries where there were no such weapons but a concentration of forces that could be used against the Russian Federation.

            The nuclear strategy document the Kremlin leader signed specifies that Russia may employ nuclear weapons against other countries that use weapons of mass destruction against it or even countries without such weapons but having large concentrations of conventional forces directed against Russia (rosbalt.ru/russia/2020/06/02/1846766.html).

            Such a document almost certainly has existed for some time, but the Kremlin has kept it secret, independent security analyst Pavel Felgengauer tells Rosbalt’s Aleksandr Zhelenin. By going public now, Putin clearly wants to put pressure on the West to extend arms control accords and to use nuclear weapons as blackmail against it (rosbalt.ru/russia/2020/06/04/1847083.html).

            The Americans have “an analogous document,” Felgengauer says, although it contains more details about American plans. “In our current decree, there are more words but few specifics, with the exception of the idea that we will use nuclear weapons whenever we want to do so.”

            “This was always the case,” he says; but “now we simply are saying so in public.” There are many possibilities for the decision to go public about this both foreign -- it constitutes a threat that other countries must now focus – and domestic – it sends a signal to the defense establishment that Putin plans to build more and better nuclear weapons.

            Leonid Brezhnev issued a no-first-use pledge, Felgengauer notes; but now Putin has put a formal end to something that likely was never more than something that could be used for propaganda. He apparently feels no need to retain it and possibly compelling reasons to do away with it. That leaves China as the only nuclear power with a no-first-use commitment.

No comments:

Post a Comment