Putin approved new doctrine that allows Russia to respond to a conventional attack with nuclear weapons. international

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed this Tuesday the decree that opens the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine to new scenarios in which it plans to fire weapons of mass destruction. The document had been prepared since September, but the president waited to make it official until the White House gave Ukraine the green light to use US missiles against military targets on Russian territory. Although this doctrine recognizes that nuclear weapons are the last resort in a conflict, from now on it will also consider their use if, as before, there is not only a “threat to the existence of the State”, but also “a serious threat” to the country. For sovereignty and/or territorial integrity.

The nuclear doctrine is a manual that, in theory, should guide the Kremlin if the conflict escalates. In Moscow’s eyes, two new scenarios are favorable to war in Ukraine, involving the United States and the European Union as enemies.

In point 11 of the document, Moscow emphasizes that it plans to use nuclear deterrence even against states that do not possess nuclear weapons if they pose a major problem to its sovereignty. “An attack on the Russian Federation and its allies by any non-nuclear-weapon State with the participation or support of a nuclear-weapon State would constitute a joint attack.”

Furthermore, the Kremlin reiterates – in point 10 of the document – ​​that “the aggression of any government as part of a military coalition (bloc, union) against the Russian Federation and its allies will be considered the aggression of this bloc in full.” ,

The new Russian nuclear doctrine also includes its ally Belarus. The regimes of Putin and Alexander Lukashenko agreed to deploy nuclear weapons in this neighboring region in 2023. Likewise, it also opens the door to pressing the nuclear button in the event the Kremlin has “reliable information about an attack by aircraft, missiles or strategic unmanned aerial vehicles.”

American newspaper the new York Times Published last Sunday, Joe Biden’s administration had given Volodymyr Zelensky’s government permission to use American ATAC missiles on Russian territory, where its enemy’s bases, warehouses and airfields were until now protected. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said a day later that the authorization would signal “a qualitatively new position in the United States’ involvement in this conflict.”