Russia should clearly present its readiness to use nuclear weapons against countries that “support NATO aggression in Ukraine“, believes the influential and considered hawkish Russian foreign policy expert Sergei Karaganov, who insists that President Vladimir Putin adopt a more aggressive nuclear stance towards the West, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Karaganov said in an interview with the “Kommersant” newspaper that Moscow should launch a limited nuclear strike on a NATO member country without provoking a full-scale nuclear war. According to him, the US is lying when it claims to guarantee nuclear protection to its allies.
According to Karaganov, the main goal of Russia's nuclear doctrine should be "to convince all current and future enemies that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons". "It is time to declare that we have the right to respond with a nuclear strike to any massive strikes on our territory. This also applies to any occupation of our territory," he said in his commentary, published weeks after Ukraine's Armed Forces seized part of Russia's Kursk region, from where Russian forces are still trying to push them out.
Karaganov's statements are being closely watched by Western security experts as an indicator of Russian thinking on foreign, defense and nuclear policy. His views are not official, but the Kremlin has previously provided him with opportunities and a platform to present them directly to President Putin. For more than a year, he has been the most influential figure calling for changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which Moscow recently said it would review.
Under the current doctrine, Russia must be ready to use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear strike by another country or a conventional attack that threatens the country’s very existence. According to Karaganov, the doctrine is irresponsible and even suicidal because it does not sufficiently deter Russia’s adversaries and makes them assume that there are unlikely to be circumstances in which Moscow would use nuclear weapons. He says Russia faces disaster if it does not dispel this perception and establish deterrence.
After two and a half years of war in Ukraine, Russia risks being drained of its blood on the battlefield and economically exhausted, which Karaganov believes will lead to "decline and perhaps even collapse." Karaganov has in the past called on Russia to consider a preemptive nuclear strike "to sober up" its adversaries.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Putin has made several statements that the West has interpreted as nuclear threats. But he has also said that Russia can win the war without resorting to nuclear weapons.
Some Western analysts believe Karaganov is playing a role, expressing opinions that have caused alarm in the West, while Putin appears calm and moderate in comparison. In the interview, Kommersant journalist Elena Chernenko asked Karaganov how he could be sure that the policy he supported would not lead to a full-scale nuclear war.
“The assumption that the limited use of nuclear weapons will necessarily lead to a general nuclear Armageddon does not stand up to criticism“, he said. “I assure you that all nuclear powers have plans for the calibrated use of nuclear weapons in certain scenarios. I am not calling for this dangerous path, I am calling for saving the world and Russia. Either we will win this war or we will fall apart“, Karaganov added. “The West can fight endlessly, this war brings it great benefits. I am not calling for a nuclear war at all, I really want us not to come to such a thing, but to stop before we have to make a terrible decision“, he concluded.“