CIA warns of nuclear threat posed by Putin

CIA chief William Burns said on Thursday that military setbacks in Ukraine could prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a tactical or low-powered nuclear weapon there.

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“None of us can accept the threat posed by tactical nuclear weapons or the potential use of low – powered nuclear weapons, considering the setbacks they have faced so far from a military perspective, as President Putin and the Russian leadership may sink into despair,” Burns said in a speech in Atlanta.

The Kremlin has spoken of keeping its nuclear forces vigilant “but we do not really see any definite signs of deployments or military action that could aggravate our concerns,” the head of the US intelligence agency told students in Georgia. University of Technology.

“Obviously we are very concerned. I know that President (Joe) Biden is deeply concerned about the danger of World War III and is doing everything he can to prevent a nuclear conflict from becoming possible,” he added.

Russia has a number of tactical nuclear weapons, less powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, and according to its “rise-and-fall” principle, in the event of a routine conflict, the low-energy nuclear weapon must first be reused. With the west.

But he underscores the presumption that “NATO’s military intervention in Ukraine during this conflict is not as planned as the president has made clear.”

Recalling his service as US Ambassador to Moscow, Mr. Burns does not have enough words for “revenge” and “stubborn” Vladimir Putin, who for many years has been immersed in an “explosive mixture of flaws, ambition and insecurity”.

“Every day, Putin proves that a falling force can lead to instability just like a rising force,” he added.