NATO taunts Russia to learn about its current nuclear capabilities

NATO is provoking the Kremlin to get fresh data on the real state of Russia's nuclear weapons - have they all rotted away long ago?

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In a recent interview, Dmitry Medvedev said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces' strikes on occupied Crimea would provoke a violent reaction from the Kremlin.

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“There will be no negotiations in this case, only retaliatory strikes. The whole of Ukraine, which remains under the rule of Kyiv, will catch fire. ...Our response can be any. We do not set any restrictions and ... are ready to use all kinds of weapons. Accordingly ... including the Nuclear Deterrent. ... I can assure you that the response will be swift, tough and convincing.”

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“We will be talking about some serious prospects of a nuclear threat if it is not the clown Medvedev who is throwing around threats, but if Russia, for example, starts nuclear tests.”

The correlation is already obvious: the more serious the weapons provided to Ukraine, the more severe the Kremlin's threats. Although they still do not look convincing.

We will be talking about some serious prospects of a nuclear threat if it is not the clown Medvedev who is throwing around threats, but if Russia, for example, starts nuclear tests. This would contradict all international agreements, but Putin doesn't care about them anyway. “It won't get any worse” - at least, it won't get any worse than the situation he has driven Russia into now.

In the case of nuclear tests, the nuclear threat from Russia will really become real. However, everything rests on the question: what is the current state of the Russian nuclear arsenal? Given the deplorable state of all other resources in the defense sector (almost everything is rusty, rotten, destroyed, stolen, and has not been maintained for decades due to the theft of money for this purpose).

Does Russia really have anything to threaten Europe and the world with? Or is it actually a bluff: whatever it manages to launch will simply fall somewhere near the launch pads?

“There is a possibility that NATO is deliberately provoking Putin to react more and more sharply: in order to obtain fresh data on the real state of Russian nuclear weapons as a result of provoked maneuvers, movements, emergency verification, and, ultimately, the same tests.”

We and our allies do not know this at the moment. But it actually determines the tactics and strategy of dealing with the crazy Kremlin gerontocracy. Now, the dialog is being built on the worst-case scenario: that Russia still has some nuclear weapons in good condition.

There is a possibility that NATO is deliberately provoking Putin to react more and more sharply: in order to get fresh data on the real state of Russian nuclear weapons as a result of provoked maneuvers, movements, emergency verification, and, ultimately, the same tests. Because as long as the Kremlin does not touch nuclear weapons, they remain a 'black box', a 'Schrodinger bomb' that either exists or does not.

And NATO obviously wants to know exactly what it is dealing with. So it will continue to provoke. And Medvedev and Putin will continue to throw around threats until Russia is defeated or NATO responds.

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About the author. Oleksiy Holobutskyi, political scientist.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.