Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats should not be underestimated, a former Russian diplomat has suggested.
Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who quit his role within his country’s permanent mission to the UN office in Geneva to protest the unlawful invasion of Ukraine, believes the Kremlin could be willing to rip up its nuclear doctrine.
Moscow stated in 2010 that it would be ready to deploy nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack against its territory or its allies or in case it felt its existence, independence or territorial integrity were being threatened.
But Mr Bondarev, whose brief in Geneva was arms control, said referring to the Russian doctrine: “The Russian leadership, when it comes to the nuclear weapon issue, will not be considering any of these documents, it will be considering only what it can get immediately from this use.”
Upon appearing on the BBC’s Ukrainecast podcast, Mr Bondarev was also asked by journalist Vitaly Shevchenko whether he believed Putin was serious about using Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
The former diplomat said: “If he sees a threat to his existence, to his power, then he may use it.”
For example, he continued, if Ukraine managed to break through the Russian lines of defence and achieve a victory so difficult to conceal that could even have ripple effects on the stability within Russia, Putin could “resort to nuclear weapons” to “save himself”, Mr Bondarev said.
Dr Patricia Lewis, a nuclear physicist and arms control expert leading the International Security programme at Chatham House, believes the West has “plans in place” to respond to a nuclear threat from Russia.
During the same podcast episode, she said: “My understanding is that the initial response with a message to the Russian people is that it wouldn’t be a nuclear response in the first place, but there would be a response for sure.
“And then, for sure, you’d get into an unprecedented situation of a massive nuclear exchange.”
Currently, Russia is believed to be holding the largest nuclear armament in the world – a total of 5,880 warheads, against the 5,044 nuclear weapons held by the US, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
