Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered to put the strategic nuclear forces on special alert, justifying this decision by the West’s unfriendly economic actions , as well as the aggressive rhetoric against Moscow, the Kommersant newspaper said. According to experts, this is the first time when Russia’s nuclear forces were transferred to such a mode since the end of the Cold War. The US leadership declared that NATO did not pose a threat to Russia.
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Putin orders special service regime in Russia’s deterrence force
Most likely, we are talking about bringing the control system of nuclear forces into a state that makes deterrence forces more stable in the event of an attack, Director of the Russian Nuclear Forces Project, Senior Researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) Pavel Podvig told Kommersant. Overall, once a containment force has been brought to this point, it becomes less vulnerable to a first strike, be it decapitation or disarmament. However, this does not mean that Russia is going to attack first.
Furthermore, Senior Research Fellow at the Academy of Strategic Missile Forces Vasily Lata told Kommersant that the president’s order sought not to escalate the conflict with the West but, on the contrary, to prevent its aggravation. Lata believes that through this decision, Putin warned the US and NATO once again that meddling in the military conflict in favor of Ukraine was inadmissible. Therefore, Putin is sending them another message: we are carrying out a special operation, do not meddle in this, because we are ready to take decisive measures, the expert said. At present, it is a necessary and reasonable decision. This will cool any hot heads on the other side.
