Putin signs decree broadening rules on Russia's use of nuclear arms

By Global Watch and AFP | 2024-11-19

Russian President Vladimir Putin November 19 signed a decree broadening the scope of when Moscow can use nuclear weapons.

The move comes on the 1,000th day of Russia's offensive on Ukraine and after the United States gave Kyiv permission to use long-range missiles to strike military targets inside Russia.

The new doctrine outlines that Russia will consider using nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state if they are supported by nuclear powers.

"Aggression by a non-nuclear state with the participation ... of a nuclear state is considered as a joint attack," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said November 19.

"It was necessary to bring our principles in line with the current situation," Peskov added, calling the update a "very important" document that should be "studied" abroad.

Russia "has always viewed nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence," he said, adding that they would be deployed only if Russia felt "forced" to respond.

The new doctrine also allows Moscow to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a "massive" air attack, even if it uses only conventional weapons.

When the Kremlin first unveiled the proposed changes in September, Peskov called it a "warning" against anybody who was thinking about participating "in an attack on our country by various means, not necessarily nuclear."

Moscow's nuclear umbrella will also be extended to its close ally Belarus under the new doctrine.

Nuclear threats

Putin has issued a string of nuclear threats throughout the almost three-year campaign against Ukraine, triggering concern in the West over rhetoric it has slammed as reckless.

Russia's land, maritime and aviation components of the strategic deterrent force held nuclear drills on October 29.

The military test-fired a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a test site in the far-eastern Kamchatka peninsula, the Defense Ministry said.

The Novomoskovsk and Knyaz Oleg nuclear-powered submarines also test-fired Sineva and Bulava ICBMs from the Barents Sea and the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk.

In addition, nuclear-capable Tu-95 strategic bombers carried out practice launches of long-range cruise missiles.

By repeatedly invoking nuclear threats, Putin is putting himself under pressure to act on the use of nuclear weapons -- not only against Ukraine but also its NATO backers, analysts say.

Putin wants to lower the threshold for use of nuclear weapons, said Maxim Starchak, a defense scholar at Queen's University in Canada.

"Putin counts on the introduction of an additional -- nuclear -- factor in the Ukraine war. He believes and hopes that this will work," he told AFP in September.