By Murad Rakhimov | 2024-12-09

TASHKENT -- The Kremlin's propagandists have long promoted the topic of nuclear weapons on local radio, television and online as a show of Russia's might on the world stage, but following the invasion of Ukraine when it became clear Russian forces were facing major difficulty, this trend gained momentum.

Sergey Karaganov, an adviser to the Russian presidential administration, recently described nuclear weapons as "God's gift" and issued a call to use them.

"Our acquisition of nuclear weapons is an intervention by the Almighty," Karaganov said October 28. "We must not make God angry. We must ... use the weapons that we were given to save ourselves."

By calling nuclear weapons "God's gift," the Kremlin is trying to frighten the West into making concessions and demanding an end to the war in Ukraine, said Pulat Ahunov, an Uzbek politician living in Sweden.

"This rhetoric attest to the difficulties Russia has encountered in Ukraine," he told Kontur affiliate outlet Global Watch.

"So the threats to use nuclear weapons are more a method to intimidate and ratchet up pressure than an expression of genuine intent to use them," he added.

Still, according to amendments proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin September 25, a nuclear response is now permitted if Russia has received "reliable information" of an attack by aircraft, cruise missiles or drones, or if there is a "critical threat" to Russia's sovereignty with conventional weapons.

'Nuclear ashes'

Two Kremlin propagandists, Vladimir Solovyov and Margarita Simonyan, have often tried to petrify listeners with talk of "nuclear ashes."

"So there are no illusions, I'm deeply convinced that a nuclear war is inevitable. I'm quite positive about that," Solovyov said on his YouTube channel in 2023.

He urged Russia to pull out of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which it did at the end of 2023, and suggested that Moscow should aim missiles at government buildings of unfriendly states.

In October 2023, Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the RT television channel, suggested staging a "thermonuclear explosion over Siberia" to send a message to the West. The blast would knock out electronic devices worldwide but would not harm Siberians, she claimed.

A year earlier, she said Russia was not calling for nuclear war but would resort to using nuclear weapons because it had no other way out.

"We're telling you that you are leaving us with no choice," she said on Telegram in September 2022.

Propagandists and Kremlin officials apparently have forgotten their country's membership in the United Nations (UN).

The resolution the UN passed on November 24, 1961, reads, "Any state using nuclear and thermo-nuclear weapons is to be considered as violating the Charter of the United Nations, as acting contrary to the laws of humanity and as committing a crime against mankind and civilization."

Not even scientists' opinions deter the propagandists.

"You'll see 90 million people die in Russia and the West in a matter of hours," Russian academic Alexei Arbatov told RTVI in September 2022.

Putin's bluff?

Inflamed rhetoric aside, Putin is unlikely to use nuclear weapons, said Alisher Ilkhamov, director of the London-based Central Asia Due Diligence.

"All you need to do is understand the logic of his actions. He always tries to act rationally," Ilkhamov told Global Watch. "Admittedly, on more than one occasion he has miscalculated, such as when he decided to unleash the war on Ukraine."

Deterrents exist, added Ilkhamov.

First, Russia would risk total isolation, including loss of support by Africa, China, India and the other BRICS countries.

Second, if the International Atomic Energy Agency expelled Russia, it could lose markets for nuclear energy and weapons.

Nuriddin Ibrahimov, a 71-year-old retiree in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, said he feels outrage when he reads the latest news.

"Listening to Putin make threats of a nuclear strike takes me back to the Cold War," he told Global Watch.

"I look at my grandchildren and think, will their lives really be cut short because of some madman in the Kremlin who wants to reshape the world to his taste?"

Russia's allies

In his statement on September 25, Putin said Russia could also potentially use nuclear weapons in the event of an attack on Belarus.

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka allowed the Russian army to use Belarus as a staging ground for the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The newly independent country gave up its Soviet nuclear weapons in the 1990s, but media reported in 2023 that Russia had installed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Iran and North Korea have also become active participants in the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is essentially luring these countries into the war in exchange for nuclear technology that they covet.

Moscow could share nuclear secrets with Iran in exchange for help in the war with Ukraine, the Moscow Times reported in September.

Already, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Tehran started supplying Russia with Shahed drones, which Russia later started producing itself.

North Korea, meanwhile, ratified a landmark defense pact with Russia last month.

It has sent at least 10,000 troops to help Moscow fight Ukraine.

In exchange for the troops, Moscow could transfer nuclear technology to Pyongyang, the Washington Post reported November 1.

The pact that Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed in June obligates both states to provide military assistance "without delay" in the case of an attack on the other and to cooperate internationally to oppose Western sanctions.