The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, signed this Tuesday the decree that opens the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine to new scenarios in which it plans to fire weapons of mass destruction. The document had been prepared since September, but the president has waited to make it official until the White House gave the green light to Ukraine to use US missiles against military targets in Russian territory. Although this doctrine considers that nuclear weapons are the last option in a conflict, from now on it will also contemplate their use if there is not only “a threat to the very existence of the State”, as before, but also “a critical threat to the sovereignty and/or territorial integrity” of the country.
The nuclear doctrine is a manual that, in theory, should guide the Kremlin in the event of a conflict escalation. Two of the new scenarios adapt, in Moscow’s eyes, to the war in Ukraine to include the United States and the European Union as enemies.
In point 11 of the document, Moscow emphasizes that it plans to use nuclear deterrence even against States that do not have nuclear weapons if they pose a major problem for its sovereignty. “Aggression on the Russian Federation and its allies by any non-nuclear-weapon State with the participation or support of a nuclear-weapon State will be considered a joint attack.”
Furthermore, the Kremlin reiterates – in point 10 of the document – that “the aggression of any Government as part of a military coalition (bloc, union) against the Russian Federation and its allies will be considered an aggression of this bloc as a whole.” ”.
The new Russian nuclear doctrine also includes its ally Belarus. Putin and Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime agreed to deploy nuclear weapons in this neighboring territory in 2023. Likewise, it also opens the door to pressing the nuclear button in the event that the Kremlin has “reliable information about a massive attack by aircraft, missiles or strategic unmanned aerial vehicles.”
The American newspaper The New York Times published last Sunday that Joe Biden’s Administration had granted permission to Volodymyr Zelensky’s Government to use American Atacms missiles deep in Russian territory, where its enemy’s bases, warehouses and airfields were until now protected. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, stated a day later that this authorization would imply “a qualitatively new situation in the participation of the United States in this conflict.”
