LONDON, November 18 ------ Russia is not considering using nuclear weapons, the Kremlin said.
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will defend its territory with all available means, including its nuclear weapons, if attacked. Russian officials say the West has repeatedly misinterpreted Kremlin statements. Asked if it was possible that Russia would use a nuclear weapon and whether or not it had been discussed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said even the framing of such questions was unacceptable. "If you have noticed, no one from the Russian side is discussing this topic and has not discussed it," Peskov said. Putin's spokesman blamed European capitals for discussing the nuclear issue and "thereby escalating tensions in a completely unacceptable, impermissible and potentially dangerous sphere."
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war. Russia and the United States are by far the biggest nuclear powers, together holding around 90% of the world's nuclear warheads—enough to destroy the planet many times over. Putin on Sept. 21 warned the West he was not bluffing when he said he'd be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. On Sept. 30, he said the United States had created a "precedent" by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945.
US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns cautioned Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, this week about the consequences of any Russian use of nuclear weapons. It was the first known high-level, face-to-face US-Russian contact since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Burns, a former US ambassador to Russia, was sent to Moscow in late 2021 by President Joe Biden to caution Putin about Moscow's troop build-up around Ukraine. "The contact [between Burns and Naryshkin] was initiated by the American side," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RTVI. "The questions discussed there were of a sensitive nature." "Dialogue is going on but it is not of a systemic character," he said. "But we are not standing there with our hat in our hand: the Americans need dialogue with us just as much as we need it with them."
Ryabkov said more contact with the United States would take place later this month when a bilateral consultative commission on the New START arms treaty meets on Nov. 29 to Dec. 6 in Cairo.
Source: gmanetwork.com