At the battle of Stirling Bridge, 11 September 1297, the movie Braveheart has William Wallace provoking the English to battle, saying "Here are Scotland's terms. Lower your flags, and march straight back to England, stopping at every home to beg forgiveness for 100 years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today. ... Before we let you leave, your commander must cross that field, present himself before this army, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own ass."

Putin's Nuclear Crisis - October 2023

Russian lawmakers voted 17 October 2023 to revoke a 1996 treaty that banned nuclear tests. Moscow says it is merely mirroring the approach of the United States, which never ratified the document. Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, on Tuesday voted in favor of withdrawing the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said earlier this month that the move would be a "mirror response" to the United States, which never formally ratified the treaty. "In the interests of ensuring the security of our country, we are withdrawing the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," Volodin said ahead of a debate and parliamentary vote on revoking ratification. Lawmakers unanimously approved the bill in its first reading. It can be signed into law by Putin after passing three lower house readings and receiving approval in the upper house.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier suggested that Russia revoke ratification of the treaty because the United States, alongside other powers, had never ratified it. Putin also said he was "not ready to say" whether Russia might find it necessary to carry out live nuclear tests. “I’m not ready to say now whether we really need or don’t need to carry out tests,” Vladimir Putin noted in this regard at the beginning of October at a Valdai meeting. “<…> When the United States signed but did not ratify, and we signed and ratified, - in principle, it is possible to behave in a mirror manner with the same United States. <...> But this is a question for the State Duma deputies. Theoretically, this ratification can be revoked. If we do this, this will be quite enough." Parliamentarians listened to the head of state.

The CTBT bans "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" anywhere in the world. Any resumption of nuclear tests could precipitate a new nuclear arms race between the big powers. In the preamble to the treaty, the goal of reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons is highlighted. The intention was to do this "by constraining the development and qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons and ending the development of advanced new types of nuclear weapons, constitutes an effective measure of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in all its aspects."

“The situation in the world has changed. Washington and Brussels have launched a war against our country. Today’s challenges require new solutions,” Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin wrote in the Telegram channel. He instructed the relevant committee to prepare a bill to revoke ratification of the CTBT. According to him, this was discussed at the State Duma Council, all factions supported the initiative. The speaker invited the deputies to become co-authors of the document.

“For 23 years we have been waiting for Washington to ratify the treaty. What is this? Double standards, meanness and irresponsible attitude, there is no other way to describe it. In this situation, we must be guided exclusively by the interests of the citizens of our country, our state. Therefore, there is a proposal to withdraw ratification," Volodin emphasized. During all these decades, the CTBT was actually observed by both Washington and Moscow. The current decision of the State Duma is said by Russians to be only a mirror response, and not a signal for confrontation. “This does not mean a statement of intention to conduct nuclear tests,” stressed the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov. The permanent representative of the Russian Federation to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said the same thing: “The recall does not mean an intention to resume nuclear tests.” According to the chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, “we are talking about ensuring national interests.” “Deratification by the Russian side of the CTBT will restore parity and become a mirror response to the position of the United States of America, which for almost a quarter of a century has been delaying the ratification procedures of this most important treaty for ensuring global security,” the LDPR leader recalled. Amid rising geopolitical tensions and the peace and security architecture under unprecedented strain, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) has a key role in ensuring disarmament will be at the centre of broader multilateral efforts at this critical moment in history, the body heard 02 October 2023 at the start of its 2023 general debate. “There has not been a time since the depths of the cold war that the risk of a nuclear weapon being used has been so high and, at the same time, the regime intended to prevent such use so fragile,” said United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu. Add to that, trust is lacking and dialogue is scarce, she continued.

IZUMI NAKAMITSU, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said at no time since the “depths of the cold war has the risk of a nuclear weapon being used has been so high, and at the same time, the regime intended to prevent such use so fragile”. Over the last 18 months, nuclear weapons have become tools of coercion amid veiled threats of use. Their role and prominence in military strategies are once again expanding. A qualitative arms race is under way, alongside the alarming possibility of a return to quantitative use. “The norms against the use, proliferation and testing of nuclear weapons are holding — but they are under threat.”

EGRISELDA LÓPEZ (El Salvador), speaking on behalf of the Central American Integration System, reaffirmed strong condemnation of any nuclear test anywhere and by anyone, she urged all States to refrain from any nuclear weapon test as they undermine international security, risk the lives of millions and cause incalculable environmental damage.

ERIK LAURSEN (Denmark), speaking on behalf of the Nordic countries — Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden - warned that, as the Russian Federation continues its war of aggression against Ukraine, it employs a wide range of conventional weapons. Moscow’s nuclear rhetoric and decision to station nuclear weapons in Belarus are irresponsible and contravene the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. He also condemned Minsk for its role in the conflict. Also concerning is the Kremlin’s announcement to suspend participation in the New START Treaty. Additionally, the Russian Federation has blocked the participation of Member States, international organizations and civil society in various disarmament processes, including in the work of the Conference on Disarmament. It also prevented the tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) from reaching consensus.

OLOF SKOOG, Head of Delegation of the European Union, in its capacity as observer, said the Union reiterates its strongest condemnation of the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine, with Belarus’ complicity, which is a violation of international law and the UN Charter. Moscow also has blatantly violated its commitments under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. The Union condemns the Moscow-Minsk agreement for allowing the deployment of Russian Federation nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus. The Union condemns the Kremlin’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and threats to use nuclear force. Moscow’s violation of existing confidence- and security-building measures and conventional arms-control commitments damaged the European security architecture.

The representative of the Russian Federation, speaking in exercise of the right of reply, rejected remarks made by Western delegations who misstated the true causes of the crisis in Ukraine and shifted all responsibility to his country. The work of the General Assembly should not be politicized by a group of Western countries. The crisis did not arise in February 2022. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and their satellites cultivated anti-Russian, neo-Nazi sentiments in Ukraine, planted hatred of “everything Russian”, sought to destroy the Russian language, history and culture. He also denounced their military engagement in Ukraine, and in 2008, opened the door to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for Kyiv, essentially promising its membership. All this created a direct threat to his country’s security.

He describes how the West supported an unconstitutional military coup in Kyiv in 2014 and how the new regime installed by the coup oppressed the Russian-speaking population in Donbass. The Kremlin tried to negotiate with the United States and NATO on mutual security guarantees. But, in February 2022, at the Munich Security Conference, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine voiced claims to possess nuclear weapons. In the same month, the Ukrainian Armed Forces provoked an escalation in the Donbass by intensifying shelling. More than 100,000 residents of the region were forced to flee to the Russian Federation. As a result, Moscow was left with no choice but to launch a special military operation on 24 February 2022 to protect Donbass, demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, and eliminate threats emanating from its territory. “And we will definitely achieve our goals,” he declared.

One of Putin's propaganda specialists, head of Kremlin-backed media outlet RT, demanded 03 October 2023 that Russia unleash a huge nuclear EMP ( electromagnetic pulse) explosion on the West to halt support for Ukraine. Margarita Simonyan, one of Putin's top propogandists, suggested he unleash a huge nuclear explosion to scare the West. She is editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster Russia Today (RT), and state-owned media group Rossiya Segodnya. Simonyan said the West “will not backpedal” on Ukraine “unless it is painful for them”. She suggested an explosion over Siberia - which would not cause a nuclear winter - would scare the West into halting backing for Kyiv. She claimed it would do so without unleashing “monstrous radiation” in Europe or the US.

But she gave a chilling warning that "A nuclear ultimatum is becoming more and more imminent - and more and more impossible to avoid". Simonyan said the blast, which would render all iPhones and iPads useless, would take us "back to the year of 1993 or so, corded phones". She added: "I'll tell you. It was a wonderful life." It would be the “most humane” and “harmless” form of nuclear blackmail, the fanatic claimed, but her outburst appeared too extreme even for her paymasters in the Kremlin.

She predicted that Putin would get his own way in Ukraine and send the world back three decades with the enormous nuclear hit. This should be “a nuclear explosion, hundreds of [miles] away on our territory, somewhere over Siberia,” she said. “There will be nothing on earth, nothing so terrible, neither nuclear winter, which everyone is afraid of, nor monstrous radiation, which will kill everyone around, and those who are not killed will die within 10 years from cancer,” she said. “That's not going to happen. What is? Well, it's going to disable all radio electronics, all digital. All the satellites. This is the camera they're filming me on right now. This is the phone that's lying next to me. We're going to go back to the year of 1993 or so…”

Andrei Ozharovsky, physicist engineer at the Radioactive Waste Safety program, told the RTVi channel that Simonyan must have “watched some disaster films, where people are stuck in a traffic jam and cars no longer start. “This is true. Ordinary household electrical appliances, car starters, mobile phones, computers will indeed be damaged within a certain radius.” Yet an explosion over Siberia “will not disable electronics in America, Europe and anywhere else in the world”. It might, however, harm Russians living in Siberia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia “at present” had “not left the regime of abandoning nuclear tests”. He said "I don't think such discussions are possible now from an official point of view”. He added that Simonyan did not “always” reflect Moscow’s official position.

Large-scale civil defense exercises took place in Russia 03 October 2023. Similar exercises were previously held in each region, but on different days. This was the first time there will be a one-time training session. Such exercises were held for the first time in the history of the country.

According to the general situation, which is indicated in the appendix to the Decree of the head of Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing [Rospotrebnazor] Anna Popova, Russians live in a world of geopolitical instability and conflict, increasing interstate contradictions, which increases the threat of the use of military force. “The danger of armed conflicts escalating into local and regional wars, including with the participation of nuclear powers, is increasing,” the statement said.

According to the scenario: general mobilization has ended in the country, martial law has been introduced in some regions, and zones of radioactive contamination may also arise. In some regions, complete destruction of life support facilities for the population and up to 70% of the housing stock is possible. It is noted that all responsible persons must participate in the staff exercises - the entire "power vertical" from civil defense leaders to heads of state corporations. An exception was made only for the authorities of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

Civil defense and emergency exercises are held on the eve of Russian Civil Defense Day. This year they became part of the unified All-Russian headquarters training, which is held in 85 regions of the Russian Federation. For the first time, training was carried out simultaneously in all regions of the country. Public warning systems - sirens and loudspeakers - were turned on, and television channels interrupted their regular programs to broadcast warnings. Russian media report that the scenario of the exercise involves practicing actions in a nuclear war, when 70% of housing and all vital infrastructure have been destroyed, radioactive fallout has occurred, and general mobilization has been announced. The exercises took place amid repeated accusations from the Kremlin that Western support for Ukraine increases the threat of direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

At 10:43, sound sirens howled over Volgograd as part of a test of the centralized emergency warning system. The public emergency notification system was being checked throughout the country. The main goal is to check all forces and means directly on the ground. They inspected shelters, apartment buildings, healthcare and educational institutions, industrial facilities, as well as the sites of the unified duty and dispatch service. Control centers and communications, points for issuing personal protective equipment, prefabricated evacuation sites, food points, and various defense structures were put on alert for the training.

One of the places chosen for the exercise in Volgograd was the Komsomolskaya light rail station. Here, the governor of the Volgograd region Andrei Bocharov and a number of officials from the municipalities of the region took part in the events. The Volgograd subway had probably never seen so many people in suits and white shirts at the same time as they are concentrated here at these moments.

The head of the Volgograd region arrived at Komsomolskaya at about 11.00 and immediately went to see how the blast doors ["bolts"] of the shelter worked. Light rail stations in the event of an emergency are capable of sheltering hundreds of residents of the regional center. As Andrey Bocharov noted, in November 2022, during civil defense exercises, the blast doors of the shelters did not work - by that day the comments had been taken into account and the situation had been corrected.

“The governor of the Volgograd region also inspected the radiation post, after which he suggested that the accompanying persons undergo testing,” reported a correspondent for the news agency “Vysota 102” from the scene. “Deputy Governor Valery Bakhin was tested for radiation first, then Andrei Bocharov himself was tested, followed by the head of Volgograd, Vladimir Marchenko. All three successfully bypassed the devices. By the way, not only officials from Volgograd found themselves at Komsomolskaya today. Among the participants in the exercises were representatives of the administrations of Leninsky, Kotovsky, Zhirnovsky, Mikhailovsky districts, as well as the mayor of Kamyshin.

Bocharov emphasized the responsibility of each of them for the safety of residents. "The lives of the population in the municipalities and the Volgograd region as a whole depend on our actions; the responsibility is very high. We all understand that for a long time, not enough attention was paid to civil defense and the protection of the population. We are faced with the task of ensuring the safety of the population, including when the situation becomes more complicated. These exercises are another step so that together we develop an understanding of which way and in which direction we will move to solve these problems,” said the head of the Volgograd region.

"The tasks set at the previous exercises were completed in full. But a number of directions and issues have been identified that also need to be addressed. The purpose of the exercises, first of all, is to improve the management system, increase interaction between government bodies, local self-government, and government structures to ensure the safety of residents of the Volgograd region and municipalities,” the governor noted.

The governor emphasized that “in general, the system operating in the region fully ensures the implementation of civil defense and population protection tasks in the current period and is ready to carry out tasks in the event of aggravation of the situation.”

Large-scale exercises on the eve of Civil Defense Day were held in Krasnodar. More than 150 people can stay in a bomb shelter behind three hermetic doors all day long. There is enough food and water. There is an air exhaust system. The exercises were held at more than 15 protected sites in the city. In total, more than 25 thousand people and 4.5 thousand pieces of equipment were involved in the civil defense headquarters training on the territory of Kuban.

In the Rostov region, the operation of civil defense and emergency warning systems were checked. Sirens sounded in municipalities at various times between 10:00 and 11:00. Radio and TV channels were replaced for one minute. The department urged not to panic - scheduled inspections took place today in all regions of the country. Emergency situations were practiced in the Rostov region during large-scale exercises. They involved about 11 thousand specialists and more than 1.2 thousand pieces of equipment. Sergey Filippov, head of the main directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Rostov region said : “As the head of the main department, I am convinced that in the Rostov region all civil defense measures will be carried out if necessary.”

President Vladimir Putin on 05 October 2023 held out the possibility that Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades and might withdraw its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty. “I hear calls to start testing nuclear weapons, to return to testing,” he added. “I am not ready to say whether we really need to conduct tests or not.” He also noted that the United States has not signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, stating that Russia, which ratified the agreement in 2000, may follow in its steps.

Putin, the ultimate decision maker in the world's biggest nuclear power, also said Moscow had successfully tested a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable cruise missile – the Burevestnik – whose capabilities he has called unmatched. The Kremlin chief said there was no need to change Russia's nuclear doctrine however, as any attack on Russia would provoke a split-second response with hundreds of nuclear missiles that no enemy could survive. "Do we need to change this? And why? Everything can be changed but I just don't see the need for it," Putin said of the nuclear doctrine - the Kremlin policy setting out the circumstances when Russia might use its weapons.

State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said 06 October 2023 Russian MPs would soon engage in discussions regarding the potential withdrawal of Russia’s ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The CTBT prohibits all nuclear explosions regardless of purpose and environment, expanding the limitations set in the earlier Partial Test Ban Treaty. Unlike its 1963 predecessor, the current agreement never entered into force, since some nations, including the US, declined to ratify it. The US last conducted a live nuclear test in 1992, while Russia, then the Soviet Union, did so in 1990. Responding to Putin and Volodin’s statements, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that should lawmakers decide to withdraw Russia’s international commitment, it does not automatically imply the resumption of nuclear testing.

"First of all, he [the president] meant the need to bring the de facto situation to a common denominator. Because a long time ago we signed and ratified [the treaty], but the Americans did not ratify. And in order to bring it to a common denominator, the president allowed the possibility of withdrawal this ratification, Volodin stated his readiness to do this. This does not mean a statement of intention to conduct nuclear tests," Peskov told reporters.

The provision of ATACMS, Taurus, and F-16s to Ukraine could lead to Russian retaliatory strikes against NATO targets in Europe, retired Russian Lieutenant General Evgeny Buzhinsky told Sputnik's New Rules podcast, adding that it would then be up to the US whether to start World War III. "I do not have firm information about how the Russian president, Russian military command will act, but I am sure that if the strikes of Taurus of ATACMS are very harmful for Russia, then I presume we will strike at least the logistical hub in the territory of Poland in Rzeszów," Buzhinsky told Sputnik. "And in this case it is up to the United States to decide what to do. Either to go to a Third World War with mutual destruction or to leave the Poles fighting Russia alone."

"To use nuclear weapons against targets in the territory of Ukraine makes no sense, because it will be a strike against our own territory," Buzhinsky said. "We have quite a variety of missiles, high precision bombs, so we have the means to strike the Ukrainian command and control infrastructure and transportation infrastructure, such as bridges and tunnels, to seriously destroy or even cut the roots of transportation of Western equipment to Ukraine."

Despite Western mainstream propaganda scaring its audience with Russian nuclear strikes "out of desperation," nothing of the kind would happen, according to the military expert. According to him, Moscow had other ways to remind the collective West about the danger of escalatory behavior. In October 1961, the USSR tested the thermonuclear aerial "Tsar Bomba" to warn NATO against escalation. "So maybe that's an option," Buzhinsky suggested. "More so that the people in the United States are talking about resumption of nuclear testing."

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said 06 October 2023 that pressure and escalation from the United States are pushing Russia to use extreme measures. “Intensification, escalation will lead to the fact that they [the Russian Federation] will take out the red button and put it on the table,” Lukashenko said during a visit to the Ministry of Defense training facility “Resistance Knot” in the Brest region, he was quoted by a Telegram channel close to the presidential press service "Pool of the first." He explains that the Belarusian leader thus indicated that it is the United States that is pushing Russia to use extreme measures.

According to him, one gets the impression that the Americans are “pushing the Russians to use the most terrible weapons.” “These are weapons for Vladimir Zelensky and his army, equipped with long-range missiles. Even to a depth of 300 km. Can you imagine: at a depth of 300 km, powerful missiles will hit Russian territory. Do you think the President of Russia and the military will calmly look at this ?" - Lukashenko asked the question, the BelTA agency quotes him as saying. According to him, “the response will be colossal.” “Again, fools, they think that they will sit overseas. They will simply drag the whole world into this difficult war,” said the Belarusian leader.

Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London, wroe 11 October 2023 : "I first met Sergey Alexandrovich Karaganov in the late 1980s. ... . The tensions within his writing reflect issues with which the elite is grappling, including how to end the war. In June he published an article which argued that Russia must break the will of the United States by threatening to use and even using nuclear weapons. ... he sought taking back all of the East and the South of Ukraine to incorporate into Russia, while ‘forcing the rest to surrender, followed by complete demilitarization and the creation of a friendly buffer state.’ To achieve this it would be necessary to ‘break the West’s will to incite and support the Kiev junta, and to force it to retreat strategically.’... He assumes that instincts to self-preservation will persuade the US to back off in the face of nuclear threats and abandon Europe. If they don’t ‘we will have to hit a bunch of targets in a number of countries in order to bring those who have lost their mind to reason.’ "

On 24 October 2023, the Russian Federation Council – the upper house of the national parliament – approved a bill that would withdraw Russian ratification of a treaty banning such tests. The Russian State Duma, the lower house, had previously passed the legislation. These legislative moves followed years of frustration at the failure of the Americans to commit to the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which Moscow ratified in 2000.

Moscow received proposals from Washington to resume dialogue on strategic stability and arms control, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said 25 October 2023. “( USA - Ed.) They propose to put dialogue on strategic stability and arms control on a systematic basis, and to do this in isolation from everything that is happening, we are not ready for this,” said the deputy foreign minister. The proposals were made in writing, but in the form of an informal aide-memoire. They are now being analyzed in an interdepartmental format. The proposals were made in writing, but in the form of an informal aide-memoire. They are now being analyzed in an interdepartmental format.

Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of research at the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, argued that the leadership in Washington may actually be seeking to convince the American public that the hybrid war the US and its allies are currently waging against Russia won't spiral out of control. “In order to prove their security, to prove that American security will not be undermined, the US is trying to reestablish the US-Russian dialog on strategic stability. And if they succeed in doing that, they will say, look, there is no risk to US security from Russia because, look, we maintain cooperation on nuclear weapons, and we control the risks of escalation and so on and so forth,” he elaborated. “They simply want to legitimize and justify the continuation of their hybrid war against Russia and prove to their own society and elites that it is absolutely safe for the United States to conduct the policy that they are conducting now.”

Suslov also argued that the Biden Administration appears “committed to the continuation of the hybrid war,” adding that he personally does not believe a dialogue on strategic stability between Moscow and Washington may take place any time soon. “I think that as long as the US conducts [this] hybrid war against Russia, any resumption of any elements of this dialogue with the United States would be harmful and counterproductive to Russian security and to Russian interests, because it would basically legitimize the US hybrid war against Russia, and it would prove that indeed it is safe for the United States to continue this policy,” Suslov surmised.

Commenting on the latest proposals Washington submitted to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said during a press briefing that Russia was unwilling to discuss matters such as arms control "in isolation from current events". Ryabkov stressed that resuming a dialogue on strategic stability between Moscow and Washington is “simply impossible in its previous form without a change in the fundamentally hostile attitude of the United States towards Russia."

Russia conducted a major exercise aimed at testing its strategic nuclear forces, the Kremlin confirmed on 25 October 2023. The drills were personally overseen by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and partly coordinated by the Russian National Defense Operations Center in Moscow. The drills involved all three components of the nuclear triad: intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-armed submarines, and strategic bombers, the statement said. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, the drills focused on the simulated delivery of “a massive nuclear strike by the strategic offensive-oriented forces in response to a nuclear strike by a [simulated] enemy.” The test also evaluated military leadership readiness capacity to command the strategic nuclear forces, the Kremlin added. All forces involved “followed through” with their goals, it added.

The exercise involved launching Russia’s state-of-the-art Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the country’s north. The missile successfully hit its target at the Kura Missile Test Range, on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far east, more than 5,700 kilometers from the launch site. Russia’s nuclear-powered ‘Tula’ submarine launched a ‘Sineva’ ballistic missile from the Barents Sea, just north of the Arkhangelsk Region, the statement said. Tu-95 strategic nuclear bombers also launched several nuclear-capable cruise missiles, it added.

The US and its allies are deliberately eroding global security and risking a nuclear war as they seek to defend their hegemony, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at the 10th Beijing Xiangshan Forum 30 October 2023. Russia and China, meanwhile, are demonstrating a model of cooperation based on equality and agreement not to enhance their own national security at the expense of other nations, he said.

In its pursuit of a strategic advantage, Washington “has for years deliberately undermined and destroyed the system of international security and strategic stability, including the system of arms control treaties,” Shoigu noted. The Ukraine conflict may eventually result in direct hostilities between nuclear powers. There are claims in the West that Russia is “reducing the threshold” for use of nuclear weapons, but this is not true, the minister said.

Russia’s nuclear doctrine has not changed. Moscow’s expected move to revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is simply meant to put it on equal footing with Washington, according to Shoigu. Russia is prepared to seek to improve the state of affairs through diplomacy, but “unless the West reconsiders its destructive line, which seeks to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, it’s doubtful that fruitful talks in this area are possible.”