Putin’s Nuclear Threats (w/ Joe Cirincione)

It may be the most pressing question facing the world at this perilous moment. Is Vladimir Putin bluffing or not when he threatens to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine? Nuclear weapons analyst Joe Cirincione says we need to take the Russian president seriously. "We should believe Putin that this is not a bluff," he writes in a recent op ed in The Washington Post. In fact Cirincione points out, Russian military doctrine has been transformed under Putin's leadership. Where once it called for the use of nukes only when the very existence of the Russian Federation was under threat, it now contemplates their use in response to quote, "large scale aggression utilizing conventional weapons in situations critical to the national security." A big difference to say the least. And one more alarming now than ever given that Putin has declared the eastern regions on Ukraine sovereign Russian territory. What might a Russian nuclear attack in Ukraine look like? And what would and should be the United States and NATO's response? We talk to Cirincione and game out the ever more frightening possibilities.

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