Military setbacks in Ukraine could prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to resort to a tactical or low-power nuclear weapon there, CIA chief William Burns said Thursday.
“Given that President Putin and the Russian leadership may sink into despair, given the setbacks they have suffered so far from a military point of view, none of us can take the threat lightly what is the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or low-power nuclear weapons“, Mr. Burns said during a speech in Atlanta.
It is obvious that we are very worried
The Kremlin has spoken of putting its nuclear forces on alert “but we haven’t really seen any concrete signs like deployments or military measures that could heighten our concerns“, added the boss of the main American intelligence agency, who spoke to students at Georgia Tech University. “Obviously we are very concerned. I know that President (Joe) Biden is deeply concerned about the risk of World War III and is doing everything to avoid getting to the point where a nuclear conflict becomes possible”he added.
Russia has many tactical nuclear weapons, of a lower power than the Hiroshima bomb, in accordance with its doctrine “escalation-de-escalation” which would consist in first using a low-power nuclear weapon to regain the advantage in the event of a conventional conflict with the West. But this hypothesis implies that “theNATO is intervening militarily on the ground in Ukraine during this conflict, and that is not something, as the president has made clear, that is planned.”he pointed out.
Recalling having served as US Ambassador to Moscow, Mr. Burns had no words harsh enough for a Vladimir Putin “revengeful”, “stubborn”, which has sunk over the years into a “explosive mix of grievances, ambition and insecurity“. “Every day, Putin demonstrates that declining power can be as destabilizing as rising power“, he added.