Experts are in no doubt about the purpose of Putin’s nuclear threat. But they fear the effect.
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It is not new that President Vladimir Putin talks about Russia’s nuclear weapons. But the message he gave this weekend is very rare. And it creates fear.
On Sunday, the president announced that he was putting Russia’s nuclear weapons on combat alert. Putin justified this with the sanctions and criticism that Western leaders have brought after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Monday, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed “unacceptable statements” from British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Putin’s move was met with condemnation from a number of Western countries.
The way Putin put it is that even experts are in doubt about what he is doing in practice. However, they are in no doubt about what he wants to achieve.
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