Reuters - What is Russia's nuclear doctrine and how did Putin change it?

By Mark Trevelyan
November 20, 2024
10:26 AM EST



LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has approved changes to Russia's nuclear weapons policy, and Moscow has urged the West to study them closely.

What's new, why is it happening now, and what does it mean for the war in Ukraine?

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
Putin signed a decree on Tuesday updating Russia's nuclear doctrine, last published in 2020. The seven-page document, like the one it replaces, says Moscow sees nuclear weapons as a means of deterring its enemies and sets out the scenarios under which it would consider using them.

WAS THIS UNEXPECTED? WHY DID RUSSIA ANNOUNCE IT NOW?
The document's content was no surprise because Putin had spoken publicly about the key points on Sept. 25. Tuesday's decree came on the same day that Ukraine fired U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles into Russia for the first time in the war, a step Moscow sees as a major escalation. But some security analysts played down the timing, saying it was understandable that the state bureaucracy had taken weeks to draft and publish the document following Putin's instructions.

HOW DOES THE NEW DOCTRINE APPLY TO THE UKRAINE WAR?
It states that any aggression against Russia by a non-nuclear state that is carried out with the participation or support of a nuclear state will be considered a joint attack. This is important because Putin has said that Western countries would be fighting Russia directly if they allowed Ukraine to fire deep inside Russia with missiles they had supplied to Kyiv.

It lists additional scenarios under which Moscow would consider a nuclear response, including if it had reliable information about the launch of a massive cross-border air attack on Russia using planes, missiles and drones. Ukraine has staged frequent air attacks, mostly with drones but now also with U.S. missiles, to degrade Russia's ability to strike Ukrainian troops, cities and energy infrastructure.

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