Vladimir Putin ramped up his bellicose rhetoric Wednesday and announced at a meeting of the Russian Security Council that henceforth, if a nation attacks the Russian Federation and a nuclear power supports that country, then it will be considered a joint attack.

He also said he reserved the right to use nuclear weapons in defense of the motherland as well as Russian ally Belarus.

⚡️PUTIN: WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN CASE OF AGGRESSION AGAINST RUSSIA AND BELARUS⚡️

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed significant updates to Russia’s nuclear strategy, citing the rapidly evolving global military-political situation. These changes… pic.twitter.com/KSLqyAOEp0

— Russian Market (@runews) September 25, 2024

Putin, who started a war with Ukraine, said that because of an “emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies,” he had ordered his government to conduct a year-long review of the country’s nuclear doctrine. The results: 

“The updated version of the document proposes that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear-weapon state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear-weapon state, should be considered as a joint attack on the Russian Federation,” Putin told the council.

He said the conditions for the launch of Russia’s nuclear weapons would be “reliable information about a massive launch of aerospace attack means and their crossing of our state border.”

He added, “We reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against Russia and Belarus.”

Putin has made threats before, but not everyone believes he would actually use nukes:

Putin loves threatening NATO with a large nuclear attack.

In reality, he would never attack NATO with nukes as the MAD* doctrine is still in place

NATO would be able respond with so forcefully that Russia would lose the little indoor plumbing it has. pic.twitter.com/NRzqvcDwAq

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 14, 2024

Russian propagandist Sergey Markov didn't see it the same way and thought the new doctrine changed things significantly. He wrote on Telegram:

“Generally speaking, this means that Russia under the new doctrine can now use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Ukraine’s aggression in Kursk region is there. There is support of nuclear U.S., Britain and France. So it is already possible to hit Kyiv with nuclear weapons,” Markov said.

Markov added that Moscow had been pushed to alter its nuclear doctrine by “the threat of the West’s full escalation of the war against Russia.”

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Putin would be insane to use nukes; he would risk starting World War III even as his poorly performing military is already struggling with Ukraine. The consequences of such an act would be enormous, and very little of it would be good for the Federation. That being said, he invaded Ukraine, and that hasn't turned out too well for him. 

Even though they're just words, Putin and Russia remain a dangerous threat.