Strike first?

After completing a state visit to Hanoi (Vietnam), answering questions from journalists, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia could make changes to its nuclear doctrine.

We are talking about the possibility of using ultra-low-power nuclear weapons. “Interlocutor” asked political scientist, dean of the Higher School of Television of Moscow State University Vitaly Tretyakov: does this mean that in a possible nuclear conflict Putin is ready to strike first?

– The President said that reflections and consultations with experts are underway on this matter. He noted that nothing fundamentally has changed yet, while there is no need for a preventive strike, but there is reason to believe that there will be changes: perhaps not from the military side, but from the geopolitical side. Given the current relations between the West and Russia, it is impossible to assume that the nuclear confrontation will change towards weakening. If we are talking about changes, then most likely they will rush towards tightening. There is no trust in each other, each suspects the other of the worst.

The impact must be more powerful, and it must be activated as early as possible in order to forestall the enemy’s attack. This is what the doctrine may imply. Many people insist that we should still strike with weapons of medium and low power. Where? At a minimum, either along the western borders of Ukraine, or in adjacent countries where military supplies are coming from: Poland or Romania. All this sharply increases the risk of unleashing a global world war with unpredictable consequences. How many millions of people will die, in what part of the globe? Fortunately, humanity had no experience of exchanging nuclear strikes. Whether there will be such blows is all guesswork.

/ Marina Suranova.