Moscow Slams U.S. ‘Fear-Mongering’ Remarks Regarding Russian Nuclear Doctrine

During the May 23 press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on recent fear-mongering remarks regarding the “Russian...

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ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: AFP 2019 / JUNG YEON-JE

During the May 23 press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on recent fear-mongering remarks regarding the “Russian nuclear threat” made by Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford (source):

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford stated at a Congressional hearing  that the US military sees scenarios where the Russians think they can use their non-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe and then put the US in a position where it will not be able to respond with strategic nuclear weapons or respond at all, and how low yield nuclear weapons are designed to convince the Russians that there are no circumstances where the use of nuclear weapons could give them a strategic advantage.

In the propagandistic anti-Russian rhetoric of the United States and some other NATO countries under US pressure, an inherently false premise has taken hold about how Russia has allegedly adopted at the doctrine level a premise allowing for the local use of nuclear weapons within some “offensive operations” in order to finish them in an advantageous position – the so-called “escalate to de-escalate” concept.

Absolutely groundless allegations regarding Russia’s nuclear policy are made for those who are used to unconditionally accepting at face value “highly likely” information fakes which have become traditional for Washington-led coalitions. In turn, unbiased specialists clearly see the falsity of Western theses regarding the Russian military doctrine which is aimed at preventing nuclear military conflicts as well as any other military conflicts. The doctrine explicitly and clearly lays out specific scenarios where our country reserves the right to use nuclear weapons. There is no need to look for novelties, it is all well-known.  Each of them is purely defensive in nature and is targeted exclusively at containing aggression against the Russian Federation.

By all appearances, the experience and approaches of some NATO nuclear powers are being unfairly projected onto Russia. Their doctrines allow for preventive “limited” use of nuclear weapons like the so-called “last warning” or “show of resolve” within the framework of defending their “vital national interests” which are traditionally viewed extremely broadly by the leading countries of the North Atlantic bloc.

Apparently, the made-up fear-mongering concept called the “Russian nuclear threat” is fuelled by Washington primarily to whip up anti-Russia sentiments among its allies and other partners who enjoy a generously unfolded US “nuclear umbrella” above them (actually, the doctrine does not have the list of such countries appended to it). This pretext is also used to sustain NATO’s practicing of “joint nuclear missions” which runs counter to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and involves non-nuclear countries, which have US nuclear weapons deployed on their territory, in their handling and use. Also, it justifies the destabilising US steps toward engineering additional low yield nuclear weapons, including on strategic carriers, as part of the strategy to acquire an expanded range of means to project military power against US opponents.

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