A few days before the March 15-17 election, in which he is seen as certain to secure a new six-year term, the president of the Russian Federation indicated that he did not think the decision to go nuclear could be made “hastily” war, nor does he see any need to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.
“From a military-technical point of view we are, of course, ready,” Mr Putin, 71, said in a full-length interview with Russian state TV channel One and the RIA news agency.
For the Russian president, the US understands that if they deployed troops on Russian soil, or on Ukrainian soil, Russia would perceive the move as “intervention”.
In the US, “there are several experts in the field of Russian-American relations and strategic restraint,” Mr. Putin said.
“Consequently, I don’t think there is any rush towards it” (s.s.: nuclear war), but “we are ready for it”.
The war in Ukraine has sparked the worst crisis in Russia-West relations since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vladimir Putin has warned that the West risks triggering a nuclear war if it deploys troops to the battlefields of Ukraine.
The Russian military invaded Ukraine in February 2022, following eight years of war in eastern Ukraine between Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists, which the West says were backed by Russian forces, in the other.
The West has promised to guarantee that Russia will be “defeated” in Ukraine, but after two years of war, Russian troops control roughly a fifth of that country’s territory.
As the US heads into an election year, the West, and especially Washington, is divided over its support for Kiev’s troops, while Russia has gone on a partial mobilization, bolstering its armed forces by hundreds of thousands of men, while at the same time rearming at a very rapid pace. faster than the western powers.
Vladimir Putin, that from his position he is the one who will be called upon to decide on the use of nuclear weapons, repeated in his interview today that this issue is defined in the relevant doctrine of the Kremlin. “Guns are there to be used,” he said. “We have our own principles.”
Russia and the US have by far the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, possessing over 90% of the nuclear weapons on the planet.
President Putin also said that Moscow is willing to conduct serious negotiations on Ukraine.
“Russia is ready for negotiations on Ukraine, but they must be based on reality — not on appetites after the use of psychotropic drugs,” he said.
Last month, the Reuters news agency reported that the Kremlin proposed to the White House that a ceasefire be declared, which was rejected by the US side, which saw the idea as a Russian attempt to “freeze” the war.
If the US proceeds with nuclear weapons tests, Russia may do the same, the Russian president added.
“It is not necessary (…) we will need to think about it, but I would not rule out doing the same,” he said when asked about it.
Vladimir Putin also said that Ukraine launched attacks against Russian regions in an attempt to “undermine” the weekend elections in his country.
The Ukrainian attacks are explained “very simply”, he said: they were carried out against the background of “(sb: Ukrainian) failures on the front line”.
“However, the main purpose, I have no doubt, is if not to undermine the presidential elections in Russia, at least to try to prevent in any way they can the citizens from expressing their will,” added the Russian president.
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