(PatriotWise.com) — The Kremlin announced on Monday that Russia would begin revising its nuclear doctrine in light of increasing threats.
In a June 24 press briefing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that work was underway to “bring the doctrine into line with current realities.”
Currently, Russia’s nuclear doctrine states that nuclear weapons would only be deployed if there is an existential threat to the Russian homeland.
However, following his trip to North Korea and Vietnam last week, Putin told graduates from the military, intelligence, and police academies that Moscow planned to develop a nuclear triad that would maintain the balance of power and guarantee deterrence.
A senior Russian parliament member said over the weekend that the update to the nuclear doctrine would reduce the time needed for decision-making required for the use of nuclear weapons if Moscow believed that threats were increasing.
In May, the Kremlin warned that Moscow may change its official nuclear doctrine, which lays out the conditions for when nuclear weapons could be deployed.
In an interview with Russia’s state news agency RIA in late May, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow could take additional steps in nuclear deterrence if the US deploys short-range or intermediate missiles in Asia or Europe.
Washington announced in April that it would deploy missiles in the Indo-Pacific in response to China’s increasing militarization, a move that would have been outlawed under the 1987 INF Treaty (Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty) signed with Russia. The United States withdrew from the treaty in 2019 after accusing Moscow of violating it, an accusation Moscow denied.
Foreign Minister Lavrov told RIA that Moscow was not ruling out other steps in nuclear deterrence, noting that Russian nuclear forces and command centers would be within “range of American forward-based missiles.”
The move comes after President Putin and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un signed a new partnership agreement that pledges mutual military assistance if either country is attacked.
Under the agreement, if an attack or invasion occurs, or either country is otherwise pushed into war, the other must “without delay” deploy “all means at its disposal” to provide military support and other assistance.
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