“Weapons exist to be able to use them.
» In a long interview on Russian television this Wednesday, Vladimir Putin once again brandished the nuclear threat, assuring that “from a military-technical point of view”, Moscow is “of course ready”.
And to recall the country's military doctrine, which provides for the use of the ultimate weapon in the event of “an attack on our sovereignty and our independence”.
However, the scenario of a nuclear confrontation is not yet a reality, he insisted, in what looks like yet another warning to Westerners.
“It is above all a response to the European hardening of recent weeks,” notes Carole Grimaud, researcher specializing in Russia and lecturer at the University of Montpellier.
The Russian leader wants to counterattack after Emmanuel Macron's recent declarations on a possible sending of Western troops to the front, in support of Kiev, and the organization of a vast NATO military exercise in the north of the Europe, which makes Moscow think “that an offensive is being prepared against it”.
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