Russian nuclear blackmail Archives

12 minute read

Analysis

Cold War lessons show why West must abandon “escalation management” now

The Cuban Missile Crisis proved firm boundaries contained Soviet expansion - but today's cautious deterrence approach achieves the opposite effect, with political transitions in 2024 leaving a narrowing window to apply these historical lessons.

bySergiy Solodkyy

Russia threatens to change its nuclear doctrine: Is this dangerous?

8 minute read

Opinion

Is Russia’s changing nuclear doctrine a significant concern – or just another empty threat?

Russia hints at revising its nuclear policy after more than 50 such threats since invading Ukraine. Citing Western "escalation," Moscow suggests lowering atomic use thresholds, sparking fresh global alarm.

byJon Richardson

2 minute read

Latest news Ukraine

FT: Russia trained for use of nuclear weapons against Europe as early as 2008

FT refers to leaked documents. Russia has been using nuclear threats widely to restrain the West from helping Ukraine reclaim occupied lands.

byBohdan Ben

A Russian Orthodox priest of the Moscow Patriarchate blesses a Russian S-300 nuclear-capable long range surface-to-air missile system. Photo: Aleksei Pavlischak / TASS

4 minute read

Latest news Ukraine

ISW: Russia escalates nuclear rhetoric as tactic to deter Western support for Ukraine

Russia strategically intensifies nuclear threats to manipulate Western policy decisions, aiming to discourage military support for Ukraine, ISW says.

byYuri Zoria

3 minute read

Latest news Ukraine

This year will be a game changer in Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukraine’s Defense Minister says

Ukraine is one step closer to victory in the Russo-Ukrainian war as the Ukrainian counteroffensive gets underway, and…

bySerge Havrylets

3 minute read

Latest news Ukraine

Zelenskyy compares obliteration of Bakhmut to nuclear bombing of Hiroshima

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Hiroshima (Japan) and compared the destruction…

bySerge Havrylets

3 minute read

Latest news Ukraine

IAEA Director General to visit Zaporizhzhia NPP next week

Next week, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, plans to visit…

byKate Ryabchiy

Russian troops stand near the Zaporizhzhia NPP

3 minute read

Latest news Ukraine

Russia blocks access of IAEA to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry

Russian forces do not allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts to rotate their monitoring group at the…

bySerge Havrylets

2 minute read

Latest news Ukraine

Putin plans to deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus – Belarusian politician

There are signs indicating that Russia is getting ready to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus in the…

bySerge Havrylets

12 minute read

Russo-Ukrainian war 2022-2024

From “nuclear backpacks” to “orgy” plans – Ukrainians brace for a nuclear strike

Concerns about the possibility of a nuclear strike on Ukraine grew in late September after President Putin threatened…

byOrysia Hrudka

11 minute read

Russo-Ukrainian war 2022-2024

What if Russia nukes Ukraine? Military strategist Lawrence Freedman explains

What’s wrong with Elon Musk’s tweet on Ukraine Officially, the US asserts that there is no evidence that…

byBohdan Ben

Russian RS-28 Sarmat (NATO reporting name SS-X-30) is a Russian liquid-fueled, MIRV-equipped, superheavy thermonuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile, in development by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau since 2009. It is intended to replace the old R-36M missile (SS-18 Satan). (Photo: video capture from the Russian Ministry of Defense / TASS. Caption: Wikipedia)

3 minute read

Moscow moves up plan to finally scrap Soviet-era missiles

Thirty years after the end of the USSR, the Russian defense ministry has announced that it will begin…

byPaul A. Goble

7 minute read

The thorny road to the Kremlin’s desired Yalta-2021

In turn, Western leaders, including US President Joseph Biden and his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, have been…

byThe Jamestown Foundation

Ruins of the Chornobyl nuclear power station. Photo: belaruspartisan.org

6 minute read

Putin’s nuclear arms blackmail caused a ‘mini-Chornobyl’

When the Chornobyl nuclear accident took place in 1986, the behavior of the Soviet powers that be was…

byPaul A. Goble

7 minute read

Kremlin’s ‘Mobilization Party’ believes limited nuclear strike would save its power at home and boost Russia’s abroad, Piontkovsky says

A newly coalescing “Mobilization Party” in the Kremlin is convinced that it can only save its own position…

byPaul A. Goble

The Putin regime continues the rhetoric of nuclear blackmail. In his annual address to Russia's parliament on March 1, 2018, Vladimir Putin boasted about the Kremlin's increasing military might and claimed new Russian nuclear weaponry would render NATO defenses "completely useless." The charts on the wall screen behind Putin show the alleged Russian buildup of long-range high-precision offensive weapons, such as cruise missiles, as compared to 2012 (Image: video capture)

9 minute read

Piontkovsky: To save his regime, Putin preparing to use nuclear weapons convinced West will blink first

“Even the toughest authoritarian regime cannot operate on force alone,” Andrey Piontkovsky says, noting that the collapse of…

byPaul A. Goble

4 minute read

Putin, his position shaky, may begin new aggression with nuclear blackmail, Piontkovsky says

Russia is not in a position to engage in an arms race with the United States, Andrey Piontkovsky…

byPaul A. Goble

History's first test of a tactical nuclear weapon using artillery as a delivery mechanism was conducted by the United States in 1953. The Grable Event, a part of Operation Upshot-Knothole, was a 15-kiloton nuclear charge fired from a 280-mm artillery gun on May 25, 1953 at the Nevada Proving Grounds. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

7 minute read

Putin is preparing to fight and win a limited nuclear war against the West, Skobov says

Putin is preparing to fight and win a limited nuclear war, convinced that “the effete West will refuse…

byPaul A. Goble

3 minute read

Russian Orthodox Church: Performance of song about nuking US in St. Isaac’s Cathedral ‘in bad taste’

Few stories from Russia in recent times (other than anything connected with Vladimir Putin) have sparked a larger…

byPaul A. Goble

In his annual address to Russia's parliament on March 1, 2018, Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia developed a cruise missile with a nuclear-powered propulsion engine with an unlimited range. (Image: video capture)

4 minute read

Putin has three goals in playing nuclear card against West now, Kirillova says

Vladimir Putin’s new round of sabre rattling against the United States is not simply an extension of what…

byPaul A. Goble