Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats about the dangers of a nuclear war erupting, stoking its flames again, did not disappear. Secret military documents revealed the Russian thinking mechanism regarding the use of nuclear weapons, adding a new episode of tension to the series of escalating tensions between Russia and the West.
The Financial Times newspaper, which revealed these documents, said that the Kremlin studied a wide range of scenarios regarding “when the country should become a nuclear state.”
The 29 leaked files relate to tactical nuclear weapons, and date back to the period from 2008 to 2014, which means they are about 10 years old.
The weapons described in the files are intended for specific targets on the battlefield, not intercontinental warheads intended to obliterate entire cities.
The documents set out detailed conditions for “how much of Russia’s military defense system would need to be destroyed” to spark a nuclear war.
For example, Russia may use nuclear weapons if 20 percent of its strategic ballistic missile submarines are eliminated. Such submarines are capable of launching nuclear missiles that would lead to the all-out war that was feared during the Cold War.
Other thresholds for nuclear war include the destruction of 3 airfields or 30 percent of Russia’s nuclear-powered attack submarines.
A threat to China
According to the Financial Times, one scenario involves using tactical nuclear weapons to prevent China from penetrating further into Russia using “second-tier units,” a term that usually refers to a second invasion wave that would support and reinforce the initial attack.
Such documents suggest that Russia has considered an attack from China even as Beijing and Moscow continue to build close diplomatic ties into the 21st century.
The newspaper reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman challenged the “authenticity” of the documents, and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Moscow and Beijing “have legally established the concept of eternal friendship and non-enmity.”
Since the start of the Ukrainian war in 2022, Putin has sharpened his nuclear rhetoric, to the point that some military officials and experts have begun to raise doubts about the Russian leader’s threats.
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