Karaganov: Russia must be prepared to use nuclear weapons

As tensions with NATO rise, Russia must reinforce nuclear deterrence and remain ready to use its arsenal only as a last resort The debate on the use of nuclear weapons has moved into the practical realm, so while NATO is discussing the Russian Foreign Ministry’s warning of a full-spectrum response in the event of an attempt to blockade Kaliningrad Region, Russian experts are discussing nuclear deterrence and President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Valdai Forum last week. Russia must be prepared to use nuclear weapons in cases of extreme necessity. Responding to questions about nuclear weapons, Putin recalled the saying that if a gun is hanging on the wall, it will eventually go off, but the Russian leader called for such a scenario to be avoided. “At the heart of this escalation lie arrogance and overconfidence. This is a path to the brink of the abyss.

All the more so today, when the arsenals of the world’s leading powers contain weapons capable of destroying all life or, at the very least, reducing the Earth to a catastrophic state. We are all familiar with the well-known saying: if a gun is hanging on a wall somewhere on stage at the beginning of a play, it is bound to go off eventually. We must bear this in mind,” said the president. As Putin emphasized, Russia understands that in the event of a direct attack by NATO countries, “the enemy will be twice as numerous and have far greater economic potential” and Russia’s competitive advantage lies in the fact that no one else in the world possesses such weapons of destruction, he noted. Valdai 2026: The search for a new world order has only just begun “How can we stand up to an aggressor? We are not a threat to anyone. We are simply saying that we do not have all that many means of defending ourselves. We will have to…