147
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Russia will make changes to its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it regards as Western escalation in the war in Ukraine, state media quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday.

The existing nuclear doctrine, set out in a decree by President Vladimir Putin in 2020, says Russia may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state.

Some hawks among Russia's military analysts have urged Putin to lower the threshold for nuclear use in order to "sober up" Russia's enemies in the West.

MBFC
Archive

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] [email protected] 95 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago

Hey look, it's the Russian State media. I love this picture

[-] [email protected] 86 points 2 weeks ago

The SECOND Russia uses nukes, it's OVER. Russia's entire existence ceases to exist, as EVERY country will nuke Russia. It won't be WWIII.

WWIII would imply two set of countries of roughly equal might, and each side has several countries fighting together.

This would be more like EVERYBODY vs Russia. And they wouldn't last more than a few days.

[-] [email protected] 61 points 2 weeks ago

The problem is Russia has the very real capability of really screwing up a good chunk of the world before they get wiped off the map. It's kind of scary if im being honest.

[-] [email protected] 51 points 2 weeks ago

I would have believed you a few years ago.

At this point I think Putin has to have serious doubts that he could use a nuke and have it actually work. He's up against both western tech and his own corruption.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah the problem is he only needs one to work. Even if it's a dud Russia being nuked into oblivion will have long term ramifications for the entire globe

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] [email protected] 38 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Do they really?

They made a lot of claims about their military capabilities. However their war with Ukraine has shown those to largely be lies propped up to hide that their oligarchs have emezzled the money.

I'm starting to wonder how nuclear capable they actually are these days.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

Nukes and ICBMs are extremely complex devices. They also require extremely specialist servi e work to remain functional. Even worse, the only people who can actually check that work are the ones doing it.

Russia hasn't detonated a nuke in decades. I wouldn't be surprised if most of their arsenal are now duds. The money embezzled, while boxes were ticked. Similarly, I wouldn't be surprised if many of their ICBMs just wouldn't launch.

Russia's nuclear capabilities are likely a paper tiger, and Putin likely knows this. Until they try and use them, they are scary. If they try and they fail, they are in a VERY bad situation.

Putin is many things, but he's not stupid. It would take a LOT more pressure from nato for him to even consider using nukes.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Uhh, maybe 2 decades ago, they sold all those weapons on Wish.com, where do you think all those super-yachts came from?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 36 points 2 weeks ago

I think even China and India would sever any remaining ties to russia if russia uses a nuke.

[-] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago

They would, as Russia is only a useful idiot and a link to natural resources for both of those countries.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

China would just wait until it's over and then pick through the remains of Russia. Probably try to claim a big chunk of southern Russia using some excuse or another.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

Well it's not ~~southern Russia's~~ northern China's fault that some mad man in Moscow used a nuke. China will just be generous and help lead the clean up in wonderful north north China.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago

If Russia uses their nukes, about 30 minuites later there won't be a Russia left to sever ties with.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 2 weeks ago

Nato will write a sternly worded letter. Biden will SLAM putin for it. The EU will try to pass chat control.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think that everyone is ready to cry right after reading this comment. Pls delete

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Ironically Biden was the one who knew Russia would attack Ukraine and spent MONTHS preparing Ukraine for it, which is why it wasn’t over in 3 days. We have also prepped for nuclear escalation. This is what real leaders do. Trump would just continue to give Putin a blow job.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago

it would be over for everyone

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Ehh, I've had a good life.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I better start eating people now so I can be a good cannibal in the wastelands

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Beware of microplastics.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

We don’t need to nuke them even, we can just use conventional munitions to fuck up every military installation they have to rubble.

And chuck a few Tomahawks at Kremlin to be sure

load more comments (9 replies)
[-] [email protected] 74 points 2 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The sound of rusty sabres being rattled.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] [email protected] 62 points 2 weeks ago

Putin, you can't invade another country killing thousands of their civilians and then get upset when that country comes into yours and starts taking your territory. Using a nuke here doesn't make you look strong, it makes you look extremely weak.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 44 points 2 weeks ago

No they won't. If Putin isn't a complete idiot, he knows that using nukes will be the end of Russia.

https://youtu.be/v4mZPc_kkys

[-] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago

It's worse than that. Russia knows they can never use nukes preemptively, it's why they have their policy.

Russia is one of the most centralized countries in the world, everything revolves around Moscow, all political and economic power, all administration, without Moscow they know Russia is dead.

The whole point of a nuke is that it eats cities, their paranoia that Moscow would be hit during the cold War was extreme, they put incredible amounts of money into air and missile defenses and demanded carve outs to the abm treaties specifically for Moscow.

Because Russia isn't a country, it's an empire ruled from Moscow, and it Moscow was destroyed it would instantly cease to be a country.

Basically, if things reached a point where Moscow's control over the rest of Russia was at risk, that's when you'd see them start to negotiate.

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] [email protected] 31 points 2 weeks ago

Bark bark bark

[-] [email protected] 30 points 2 weeks ago

In Putin's eyes:

Putin = Russia.

So, "threatens the existence of the state" means "I might personally lose power over this".

It wasn't that long ago troops marched towards Putin, and while he meant to teach the lesson "go against me and die" what he really taught everyone was "next time don't negotiate and don't believe anything I say".

All it takes is letting some fall guy with a personal grudge against Putin get close to him with a gun.

Everyone gets to pretend that they didn't want him dead, and the fall guy gets killed immediately after but got to settle his score first.

Without Putin the focus goes back on making money, and Russia stops invading people and threatening nuclear Armageddon.

The people around him are definitely considering if he's worth more as a myth than a man at this point.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

True. Dictators like Putin don't usually retire, alive at least and the end is not usually pretty, so he hangs on, and on.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

Putin has no endgame.

There is no timeline where he can step down and live peacefully.

His one in a million is to conquer enough of Ukraine and somehow be allowed to keep it - but that’s not happening unless Donald wins the election.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago

And we can assume that these nukes, unlike the conventional armory, have been maintained since the Cold War and not sold off to private interests?

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

I seem to recall a big kerfuffle around a decade and a half back about Russia not actually knowing what became of a whole bunch of nuclear weapons in the aftermath of the USSR collapsing. There were also rumors of Soviet nukes being sold off to various unsavory groups. It really wouldn't surprise me to find out there was some truth to that.

I have also heard that ICBMs and the like require regular expensive and specialized maintenance in order to remain functional. Knowing what we now know about Russia what do you figure the odds are that some general or other decided those maintenance funds would be better used to line their pockets since the odds of actually using those nukes were so low?

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Almost all nuclear weapons require quite a bit of expertise to maintain over time. If they got sold off 30 years ago, chances are 99% that they’re mostly good for lighting off as a dirty bomb and not much else at this point.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I have no doubt large parts of their nuclear arsenal have been stripped to fund their maintainers' Krokodil habits but it only takes one to start a nuclear war, and a smaller and simpler tactical warhead on a Khinzal or Kh-15 of the sort we'd likely see used against Ukraine is less likely to have been scavenged.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

Oh come on Putin, no one is gonna use nukes… don’t be a bitch.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

Bark bark bark

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

Russia: We're updating the conditions required for the West to glass us when we get too big for our britches

What the fuck Russia?? How hard are you planning on rattling that sabre?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

If their nuclear bombers went airborne the second Ukraine troops crossed their borders people would've taken them seriously. It would've shown how serious they were. But here we are, weeks after the invasion onto Russian soil, and their strong man argument is changing a few words on paper. It's not very impressive or convincing.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Russia: nuclear terrorism is all we have left.

Millennials: don't threaten us with a good time.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

I guess they're relaxing the policy, since they've hinted previously that they viewed attacks on Russian territory to be a threat to the existence of Russia and would use nukes in response. But they didn't.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
147 points (94.5% liked)

World News

38531 readers
2201 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS