What is the new nuclear doctrine announced by Russia and why is it a “notification” from the Kremlin to the rest of the world?

The representative of Russia Vladimir Putin announced changes to his country’s nuclear doctrine .

This term refers to the reasons that would lead you to consider using armament of this kind .

The warning follows a series of previous threats what Kremlin officials had done.

The same head of state warned in June that its nuclear doctrine was a “living instrument” that could be modified in relation to world events.

Similarly, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in late August that they were “clarifying” the terms and that A possible World War III would involve both Europe and the United States. .

In this case he also pointed out that Western countries that support Ukraine They are “playing with fire” .

Kremlin warning comes amid the ongoing military invasion in the country of President Volodimir Zelensky, which was extended for more than two years since February 24, 2022.

As the conflict developed, economic and military aid programs have been fundamental to counter the Russian offensive.

Ukrainian forces, while working to prevent Russian troops from advancing on the combat fronts, They also maintain a cross-border raid which started in the Kursk region on August 6, 2024.

Zelensky’s government has repeatedly asked its Western allies to lift restrictions on the use of certain weapons given that They currently do not have authorization to use the long-range missiles provided to them against targets located on Russian territory.

Faced with this situation, the Kremlin insisted that This could trigger a larger conflict. .

Putin’s announcement regarding the new nuclear doctrine took place on Wednesday, September 25, 2024. during a meeting with the Security Council.

On this occasion, the President assured that officials of the Ministry of Defense and other government agencies were reviewing the terms in depth for a period of one year, due to “the emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies” .

“The updated version of the document proposes that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state, be considered a joint attack against the Russian Federation.

In this sense, he clarified that they would consider the use of nuclear weapons if they obtained “reliable information about the massive launch of means of aerospace attack and their crossing of the border of our state” .

“We reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in case of aggression against Russia and Belarus “, underlined Putin.

It is good to remember that Ukraine is a non-nuclear state that has received support from the United States and other nuclear-armed countries. with nuclear weapons.

The chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, Andrei Kartapolov, told his country’s state media: The proposed changes “will allow it to become more flexible and more efficient” .

“The changes were made to ensuring that doctrine corresponds to today’s realities “, he added.

Previous nuclear doctrine was created by Putin in a 2020 decree .

He said the Kremlin could use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack threatening the existence of the state from Russia.

The think tank’s nuclear weapons specialist Carnegie Endowment Maxim Starchak, wrote in an analysis published in July – before Putin’s announcement – ​​that “Nuclear threats have become routine for the Kremlin” .

“Every time kyiv receives new weapons, it is allowed to use Western weapons to attack Russian territory or attack Russian missile warning systems,” Moscow resorts to nuclear threat “, he stressed.

In the same vein, Starchak added that “with nuclear blackmail, Moscow is trying to recreate the world order that prevailed in the second half of the 20th century “.

A Russian academic close to his country’s senior diplomats told Washington Post -on condition of anonymity- Changes in nuclear doctrine would result in greater flexibility of terms and, “in some sense, broaden it” .

“It seems to me that a part of uncertainty will be preserved to increase the level of flexibility . But (…) given that the use of nuclear weapons in the event of Kursk-type attacks would be accompanied by significant negative side effects, this can hardly be justified from a military point of view.”

He also stressed that the Russian president’s announcement was made with the aim of send a “warning” or “signal” to Ukraine and its Western allies .

However, he suggested that “there is still a wide choice of options for climbing”, so nuclear power “is not the Kremlin’s favorite” .

For his part, the analyst based in Geneva (Switzerland) of the project Russian strategic nuclear forces Pavel Podvig, told the aforementioned American media that the changes were aimed at create “uncertainty and ambiguity about the possibility of a response” .

In this sense, he said that many defenders of the Kremlin considered that The previous version of the nuclear doctrine was “quite restrictive” .

Regarding the recent warning, he said that “in general, This is a message intended to warn the West, in this case, that the type of assistance currently being discussed could be problematic. » .

Following this announcement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused in an interview with MSNBC that The Russian president “is totally irresponsible” .

“I think that many in the world have spoken about it clearly while he has made noise on the nuclear issue, including on China in the past.”

Along with this, he said this type of announcements “as the world gathers in New York” for the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly “they will play tricks” on Russia .