The frequency with which Vladimir Putin raises the possibility of using nuclear weapons to attack Britain and other western countries in support of his war of conquest in Ukraine is both chilling and irresponsible. These threats from Russia’s president, echoed by his sycophantic predecessor, Dmitry Medvedev, have become almost routine, prompting suggestions that Putin is not really serious. Yet while there is certainly an element of bluff, and a crude attempt at intimidation, complacency about his behaviour is dangerous – and potentially catastrophically misplaced.
No entirely rational national leader would casually raise the risk of mass annihilation in this way, let alone one who commands the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. Putin’s incomprehensible decision to mount a full-scale invasion of Ukraine revealed a man cut off from political and military realities, impervious to opposing views, obsessed by supposed western plotting, and in thrall to his own deluded fantasies about restoring the power and sway of pre-Soviet imperial Russia. His complicity in targeting Ukraine’s civilians and numerous war crimes and assassinations shows he will stop at nothing.
