Putin downplays the threat of nuclear war in pre-election messages
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sought to downplay fears of nuclear war in an interview released Wednesday, denying that he had considered using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, aiming to boost its domestic image as a guarantor of stability before World War II. Russian presidential elections this weekend.
In a lengthy interview on Russian state television, Mr Putin struck a softer tone than in his state of the nation speech last month: when he said the West risked nuclear conflict with Russia if it were to intervene more directly in Ukraine. In the interview, Mr. Putin described the United States as trying to avoid such a conflict, even as he warned that Russia was prepared to use nuclear weapons if its “sovereignty and independence” were threatened.
“I don’t think everything will gain momentum here,” Putin said when asked whether Washington and Moscow were heading for a showdown. He added that although the United States was modernizing its nuclear forces, “in my opinion, that doesn’t mean they are ready to start this nuclear war tomorrow.”
“If they want it, what can we do? We are ready,” Putin said.
The comments appeared to be largely aimed at the Russian electorate, two days before the opening of polling stations for the presidential election, which runs from Friday to Sunday. While It is almost certain that Putin will win a fifth termthe Kremlin would like to increase turnout to present the vote as a stamp of approval for the president and his followers large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 critics of Mr. Putin have increasingly focused on him to what he has long presented as perhaps his biggest domestic selling point: the idea that he brought security and stability after Russia’s chaotic 1990s. The Russians seem particularly nervous about the prospect of nuclear conflict; 55 percent of respondents an independent pollster said in January that they feared a new world war.
But in dealing with the West, Mr. Putin sees the threat of Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal as one of his most effective tools. He has repeatedly referred to that arsenal as he sought to dissuade Western countries from more actively supporting Ukraine, most recently in his annual speech on February 29, when he portrayed the deployment of troops from NATO countries to Ukraine as a step that would lead to nuclear weapons. war and the ‘destruction of civilization’.
In the interview released Wednesday, Putin sought to allay the Russian public’s fears while putting pressure on the West. Asked whether Russia and the United States were playing a game of chicken, Mr. Putin described President Biden as trying to avoid direct war and said Ukraine’s fate was of far greater importance to Russia than to the United States.
“I said that Biden is a representative of the traditional political school,” Putin said. “For us this is a matter of life and death, while for them it is a matter of improving their tactical position.”
U.S. officials have said the closest Putin came to using nuclear weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine was in the fall of 2022, when Russian ground forces took a back seat and US intelligence intercepted frequent conversations in the Russian military about reaching the nuclear arsenal.
When asked in the interview released on Wednesday whether he had considered using “tactical” nuclear weapons at the time, Putin replied that “such a need never existed.”
“We have our own principles – what do they say?” Mr Putin said, referring to Russia’s nuclear doctrine. “That we are ready to use weapons, including all weapons, including the weapons you mentioned, when we talk about the existence of the Russian state, about inflicting damage on our sovereignty and independence.”
When asked about his invasion of Ukraine, Mr Putin said Russia would go ahead and increase its firepower on the battlefield to reduce its own casualties.
As in last month’s speech, Mr. Putin described his end goal in Ukraine as an agreement with the United States, similar to the “security guarantees” that Russia proposed in 2021, on the eve of the invasion, which would have given Moscow a new sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and which was rejected as unacceptable by the West. He also indicated that he saw Russia’s negotiating position as improving, given the progress of the Russian military on the battlefield.
“Nevertheless, we are ready for a serious conversation,” Putin said. “But we must clearly and clearly understand for ourselves that this is not a pause that the enemy wants to take to rearm, but that this is a serious conversation with security guarantees for the Russian Federation.”