Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed the revised nuclear doctrine, which states that any conventional attack on Russia by any country backed by a nuclear force will be considered a joint attack on his country.
Putin’s support for the new nuclear deterrence policy comes on the thousandth day after sending forces to Ukraine, on February 24, 2022.
This comes in the wake of US President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia with long-range missiles provided by the United States.
The signing of the doctrine, which states that any large-scale air attack on Russia could trigger a nuclear response, shows Putin’s willingness to leverage the country’s nuclear arsenal to force the West to retreat while Moscow presses a slow-moving attack in Ukraine.
Asked whether the updated doctrine was deliberately issued in the wake of Biden’s decision, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the document was published “in a timely manner” and that Putin had instructed the government to update it earlier this year so that it was “in line with the current situation.”
Putin first announced changes to nuclear doctrine in September, when he chaired a meeting to discuss proposed amendments.
The Russian President has previously warned the United States and other NATO allies that allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons supplied by the West to strike Russian territory means that Russia and NATO are in a state of war.
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The updated doctrine states that any attack against Russia by a non-nuclear power “with the participation or support of a nuclear power” will be viewed as a “joint attack on the Russian Federation.”
It adds that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear strike or conventional attack that poses a “serious threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia” and its ally Belarus, a vague wording that leaves plenty of room for interpretation.
He did not specify whether such an attack would necessarily lead to a nuclear response. It cites “uncertainty about the scale, timing and location of potential use of nuclear deterrence” among the fundamental principles of nuclear deterrence.
The document also notes that any aggression against Russia by a member of a bloc or military alliance is seen as “aggression by the entire bloc,” in an apparent reference to NATO.
At the same time, it defines the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons in more detail compared to previous versions of the doctrine, noting that they can be used in the event of a large-scale air attack involving ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft, drones and other flying vehicles.
The broad wording appears to significantly expand the grounds for possible use of nuclear weapons compared to the previous version of the document, which stated that Russia could exploit its atomic arsenal in the event of a ballistic missile attack.
President Alexander Lukashenko, who ruled Belarus with an iron fist for more than thirty years and relied on Russian support and subsidies, has allowed Russia to use his country’s territory to send troops into Ukraine and deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons.
Since Putin sent his forces into Ukraine, he and other Russian voices have been threatening the West with Russia’s nuclear arsenal to dissuade it from stepping up its support for Kiev.
Russian hawks have been calling for months to tighten this doctrine, saying that the previous version failed to deter the West from increasing its aid to Ukraine and created the impression that Moscow would not resort to nuclear weapons.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
