PUTIN SIGNS REVISED RUSSIAN NUCLEAR DOCTRINE IN WARNING TO THE WEST OVER UKRAINE

Tue 19 November 2024:

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Tuesday a decree approving Moscow’s updated nuclear doctrine.

According to the document, published on the government portal’s website, aggression against Russia and its allies by a non-nuclear country with the support of a nuclear state will be considered as a joint attack.

Also, Russia may use nuclear weapons in a critical threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to its allied state — Belarus.

“The nuclear doctrine update was required to bring the document in line with the current political situation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency in comments published early Tuesday.

The revised doctrine also includes a list of opponents against whom nuclear deterrence is being implemented and conditions for its use, including the launch of ballistic missiles targeting the Russian territory.

If a state provides its territory and resources for aggression against Russia, it is the basis for the nuclear deterrence of such a state, the updated doctrine suggests.

Putin announced the changes in his address at the biannual standing conference on nuclear deterrence on Sept. 25, where he emphasized the urgency of revising the document, which, prior to the current revisions, designated the use of nuclear forces as a “last resort” to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty.

The shift drew condemnation from the Kremlin, with Peskov saying Monday that Washington was pouring “oil on the fire” and was provoking “further escalation of tension around this conflict.”

Peskov outlined Moscow’s new threat in light of Washington’s shift in policy: That the use of Western non-nuclear missiles by Ukraine’s military against Russia under the new doctrine could lead to a nuclear response.

The changes had been formulated and will be formalized as necessary, he said. Still, the use of nuclear weapons would be a “last resort measure,” he added.

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The changes mark the most significant saber rattling yet by the Kremlin, which has consistently warned about possible nuclear war throughout the now 1,000 days since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Putin had signaled the update to his country’s policy earlier this year as he sought to warn the West against loosening restrictions on Kyiv’s use of long-range weapons to strike deep inside Russia.

Russia also reserved the rise to use the weapons even if Belarus was attacked, he said then. And the new doctrine matches that shift.

“Aggression against the Russian Federation and its allies by a non-nuclear country with the support of a nuclear state will be considered a joint attack,” it reads.

The change follows Putin’s warning to the U.S. and its NATO allies that any use of their long-range weapons supplied to the Ukrainians against Russian territory would mean NATO and Russia are at war.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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