Sao Paulo
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pulled the nuclear card again in his dispute with the West over the war in Ukraine, threatening to resume testing nuclear warheads for his new strategic missiles.
In his annual speech at the 20th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, a Kremlinlinked body, Putin said Russia could resume ratification of the Comprehensive NuclearTestBan Treaty.
“Russia signed and ratified the treaty, but the United States only signed it. Scientists say the warheads of new weapons need to be tested. I can’t say at the moment whether testing is necessary, but I would say that we may have to take a step back on ratification,” he explained.
The president said that “it will be left to the parliamentarians,” which doesn’t mean much considering that the Russian legislature is entirely on the Kremlin’s side.
Putin was responding to a question about the issue that arose again this week after the influential director of state broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonian, defended the explosion of a nuclear bomb at an uninhabited site in Siberia, warning the West about the risks involved Support for Kiev.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied such an intention, but Putin put the ball back on the field. It also said that testing of the Burevestnik nuclearpowered cruise missile, as analysts suspected, had been completed and it was ready for production.
“Only legal and bureaucratic details are missing,” the Russian said, claiming to have completed the development cycle of the six “invincible weapons” he announced to the world in 2018, which was met with widespread skepticism from military observers.
The Burevestnik, which is the most difficult to produce, is described as a missile that flies with unlimited autonomy, like a nuclear drone waiting to reach its target. The hypersonic missiles Tsirkon and Kinjal as well as the heavy intercontinental ballistic model Sarmat are already in use. The Poseidon nuclear torpedo and a neverdescribed laser weapon complete the list.
The treaty, which banned all types of nuclear tests, was drafted in 1996 but did not enter into force because eight of the 44 states involved in the negotiations, whose ratification of the text was a prerequisite, had not yet done so, including the United States. An earlier agreement in 1963, ratified by the powers, provided for a veto on all but underground testing.
Moscow and Washington possess 90% of the world’s roughly 12,500 nuclear warheads, a legacy of the Cold War arms race that ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Earlier this year, Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the latest strategic arms control treaty, the most powerful aimed at destroying cities and ending wars.
This was one of his moves to remind rivals in the West that the Russia they are indirectly fighting in Ukraine and providing Kiev with weapons, training and intelligence is a nuclear power. This has led to a slow pace of deliveries: heavy tanks were only handed over to the Ukrainians after more than a year of war, and Western fighter jets remain a promise.
Putin’s threat comes the same day that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met in Granada, Spain, with leaders of the European Political Community, a group that unites Kiev’s supporters in the war.
However, with a sigh of relief, the Russian president once again said that he did not intend to change his nuclear doctrine, which envisages the use of the bomb only in the event of similar attacks or an existential threat to the state. Therefore, it makes “no sense” to talk about the use of limited tactical bombs in Ukraine. He had already said this last year at the Valdai meeting near Moscow.
Putin used his speech and subsequent question and answer session to reiterate his positions on the conflict with the West, referring to Russia’s “arrogant” treatment after the collapse of the Soviet Union. “I would even suggest joining NATO.” [aliança militar ocidental, em uma entrevista em 2000 à rede BBC]but they wanted nothing to do with us,” he explained.
“We did not provoke the socalled war in Ukraine, but we want to end it,” he said, accusing the West of supporting the “unconstitutional coup” that toppled the proMoscow government in Kiev in 2014, the seeds of the current one conflict. “It’s not a territorial conflict, we don’t want territories. “It’s about the beginning of a new world era,” said Putin, who annexed Crimea nine years ago as an initial response to events.
Commenting on the salute to a Nazi veteran during Zelensky’s visit to the Canadian Parliament two weeks ago, he said the episode was “disgusting” and said again that he intended to “denazify Ukraine.”
He complained about Kiev, saying its neighbors continue to receive Russian money for the transit of natural gas through pipelines connecting Russia to Eastern Europe. “They call us bandits, but money doesn’t stink,” he said.
In addition, Putin again said he supported expanding the UN Security Council and named BRICS group partners Brazil, South Africa and India as natural candidates in a “wellnegotiated” process. He also reiterated the theme of multilateralism that respects civilizational differences, stating that his alliance with China in Cold War 2.0 “is not directed against anyone.”