On Tuesday morning he visited researcher, retired general and former defense chief Sverre Diesen The NRK Politisk kvarter program to talk about the risk of Russian President Vladimir Putin using nuclear weapons, as well as the expected consequences of this.
Asked by the NRK presenter whether the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons is now lower than it was at the time of the terror toll, Diesen says yes.
However, he believes the most worrying thing is that Putin, continually rattling his nuclear saber, is talking about it. without to do it.
– Thus, he puts himself in a form of compulsion to move. This is because it will lose credibility every time it repeats these threats without anything happening. That’s worrying enough, Diesen says and continues:
– Especially since he now has an opposition in his inner circle that is beginning to become dissatisfied, plus the fact that he has people around him who really want Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons in the belief that this is what is needed to deter the ‘West from continuing to support Ukraine.
Warns the West of “uncontrolled escalation”
Additionally, Diesen is asked if he thinks the US will respond if Russia uses nuclear weapons. He replies that he believes that Americans understand him “in a very fundamental way”:
– That is to say that the greatest risk to the use of these weapons lies in the possibility that Putin may believe he will get away with it – that the use of nuclear weapons will not be subject to retaliation. Hopefully, the Americans have very carefully explained to Putin that he doesn’t have to imagine it, Diesen tells NRK.
He believes that “such an attack will be avenged in a way that will be completely devastating for Putin and Russia.”
– It will not necessarily respond with corresponding weapons, but initially with conventional weapons, which will probably be directed against Russian forces in Ukraine. In this way, the West will avoid a situation where there is an immediate escalation of the use of nuclear weapons, as well as stigmatize the use of nuclear weapons by Russia.
