Vladimir Putin has signed a new doctrine that lowers the threshold for using nuclear weapons. This comes in the wake of President Biden giving the go-ahead for to use US-made long-range missiles on targets beyond its borders for the first time.
The Russian state news agency TASS reported that Foundations of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence – the Russian nuclear doctrine – had been updated on Tuesday morning.
The new doctine states that the Kremlin could consider launching an atomic strike if was hit by a conventional missile assault by a state being supported by a nuclear power.
The doctrine also stated that any attack on by state in a coalition would be considered an attack by the entire coalition.
The TASS report added that any assault on its neighbour Belarus, the use of drones against , or the crossing of a Russian border could also incur a nuclear response.
The report said the Kremlin reserves the right “to consider a nuclear response to a conventional weapons attack threatening its sovereignty, a large-scale launch of enemy aircraft, missiles, and drones targeting Russian territory, their crossing of the Russian border, and an attack on its ally Belarus.”
The Russian’s President’s posturing over nuclear weapons comes after Washington decided to grant Kyiv the freedom to launch long-range missiles into enemy territory.