Russia is much more afraid of China
than of the northwestern powers allied in NATO.
The
Financial Times
newspaper published this Wednesday a leak of Russian Defense documents from which it can be extracted that Moscow ordered and carried out a review of its nuclear doctrine more than a decade ago, even before the pro-European Maidan revolt in 2014 in Ukraine. and its occupation of the Ukrainian province of Crimea.
Military doctrine is the theory that each country that possesses nuclear weapons has about under what conditions and circumstances they could use nuclear weapons: against whom, in what cases, who would give the order and other eventualities.
The Russian documents leaked to the British newspaper, which can also be understood as another attempt by Moscow to threaten European countries by reminding them that it has nuclear weapons, serve to see
how Moscow changed that nuclear doctrine a little over a decade ago
to approve the use of the weapon. nuclear at the beginning of a conflict against a great world power (which does not have to be just the United States).
The documents include military training scenarios, with simulation of the use of atomic weapons,
in the face of a massive invasion by Chinese forces
.
Russia knows that in a conventional land war it could hardly cope with the amount of men and military material that Beijing could have at its disposal.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
AP Photo
The change in military doctrine lowers the requirements for the use of nuclear weapons and
allows it to be used, for example, if a foreign power invades Russian territory
or if certain conditions are met, such as the destruction of 20 percent of the Russian ballistic missiles arranged in nuclear submarines or 30 percent of these submarines, the sinking of three attack battleships, three airports or even to prevent Russian forces from losing a battle or territory, another scenario that can easily occur in Ukraine.
Russia could also use nuclear weapons to end
a conventional conflict that it was losing to avoid its defeat
and the massive loss of soldiers, a scenario that could occur in Ukraine.
The British newspaper claims that it had access to the documents thanks to Western intelligence sources, who had had those papers for years.
The fear of the elites
From them it can also be extracted that Russian fears are not concentrated so much in Europe or the United States (NATO allies) but in China.
Despite officially improving relations between China and Russia (although Beijing has so far refused to accept arms and ammunition orders from Moscow, which continues to import mostly Iranian drones and North Korean artillery ammunition), political
elites and Russian soldiers are afraid of boys.
The war in Ukraine has put Russia in a military labyrinth in which it must put all its strength and expose its entire eastern flank, so this nuclear doctrine could serve to guarantee territorial inviolability in the face of an eventual Chinese military threat.
The leaked documents also tell
how the Russian high command has prepared several scenarios of possible Chinese invasions
and how nuclear weapons could be used to prevent them.
The papers also serve to see how Russia trained its troops to launch a nuclear first strike under ground war conditions.
Russian fear of China is clear.
The papers explain military maneuvers,
with fictitious use of nuclear weapons
, to repel a conventional but massive Chinese attack, although China is disguised under the name of "the south", which threatens a supposed "Northern Federation", in reference to Russia.
The documents also include naval training that includes the use of nuclear weapons against the landing of soldiers of an enemy power on Russian territory.
Or even to repel an imminent attack with conventional weapons.
The papers explain that if, in the face of a military attack, Russia loses so many men that it endangers its ability to guarantee the security of the State,
it could use nuclear weapons to prevent it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken on several occasions about the Russian nuclear arsenal since he ordered military aggression against Ukraine.
Last year he said that he would use nuclear weapons against a nuclear attack from another country and
if the existence of the Russian state were threatened
, scenarios much more difficult to achieve and therefore provoke a Russian nuclear response.
P.B.