“We haven’t gone mad, we know what nuclear weapons are,” Putin said, speaking by videoconference to his Human Rights Council, an organization entirely subject to the Kremlin.
After several threats to use them having emanated from Russian officials in recent months, he stressed that these weapons were “a means of defense”, that they were intended for a “retaliatory strike”.
In other words, “if we are hit, we hit in response”, hammered the head of the Russian state.
Nevertheless, “the threat of a nuclear war is growing”, in view of the Russian-Western confrontation around Ukraine, he noted, blaming this situation on the Americans and the Europeans.
“Any talk lightly about nuclear weapons is absolutely irresponsible,” commented US State Department spokesman Ned Price a few hours later.
For German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the international community “has drawn a red line” for Russia and has helped reduce the risk of Moscow resorting to nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“One thing has changed for the moment: Russia has stopped threatening to use nuclear weapons,” the chancellor said in an interview with the German media group Funke and the French regional daily Ouest-France to be published on Thursday.