Putin sounds out military commanders on Ukraine

I bet the reason that is public news is so that Putin has the option to shift blame in the failures there. Otherwise it would never be public news.

I.) Russian Nuclear Policy and the Status of Detargeting

Bruce G. Blair Monday, March 17, 1997

* First-use of Tactical Nuclear Weapons

* Launch on Warning/First-Use of Strategic Nuclear Forces

* Status of Russian Strategic Missile Detargeting

* Conclusion

“The moral of the story is that our nuclear security remains entwined with Russia’s nuclear doctrine, strategy, operational practices and safeguards.

We need to make fundamental changes in U.S. policy to get real traction on the danger of weakening nuclear control in Russia, a danger that in my opinion vastly exceeds the danger that Russia would ever launch a deliberate attack.

To reduce Russia’s reliance on nuclear weapons, their extensive dispersal, and “hair-trigger” posture, we must cooperate to develop mutual confidence and strengthen mutual security.

Various means of passive and active protection from this danger, particularly national ballistic missile defense, also need to be thoroughly examined and evaluated.”

SOURCE : https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/russian-nuclear-policy-and-the-status-of-detargeting/amp/


II.) The Soviet Union’s 1991 collapse made Russia the inheritor of the vast majority of the USSR’s weapons of mass destruction. Although Russia has substantially reduced its stockpiles from Cold War peaks, it still controls one of the world’s largest and deadliest nuclear forces, and deteriorating relations with the United States have stalled further arms control diplomacy.

SOURCE : https://www.nti.org/countries/russia/


III.) Russian Nuclear Threats, Doctrine and Growing Capabilities

“Russian Nuclear Doctrine 
Putin’s Russia has the lowest nuclear weapons use threshold in the world. Worse still, in 2019, President Putin even promulgated the KGB version of Christianity: In a nuclear war he said, all Russians go to heaven but their victims won’t.

Putin’s June 2020 directive on nuclear deterrence made it clear the most alarming reports concerning the Russian nuclear first use threshold were accurate.

Noted Russian journalist Pavel Felgenhauer observed that Russia’s “…nuclear threshold is becoming lower” and, “while the Russian leadership believes it has surpassed the West militarily thanks to its dazzling superweapons, Moscow’s threshold for employing military force in conflict situations may also drop further.”

SOURCE : https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2022/07/28/russian_nuclear_threats_doctrine_and_growing_capabilities_844910.html



AUTHORITY TO ORDER THE
USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

HEARING

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

“The Congressional Research Service tells us this is the
first time that the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate
or House has met on this topic since 1976, 41 years ago.

Making the decision to go to war of any sort is a heavy
responsibility for our Nation's elected leaders, and the
decision to use nuclear weapons is the most consequential of
all.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and the subsequent practices
recognize that the use of nuclear weapons must be subject to
political control. This is why no general or admiral or Defense
Secretary has the authority to order the use of nuclear
weapons.

Only the President, the elected political leader of the United States, has this authority.

The nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War dramatically elevated the risk of nuclear conflict.

As the Soviets developed massive numbers of nuclear weapons and the systems to deliver them to the
United States, we planned for the unthinkable:

How to get our missiles in the air within those few minutes before their warheads could hit us and possibly destroy our ability to
respond.”

SOURCE : https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg34311/html/CHRG-115shrg34311.htm