Leaked Top Secret files have reportedly shown what conditions Russia would consider justification for unleashing its nuclear deterrent.
Leaked documents indicate Russia’s threshold for employing tactical nuclear weapons is significantly lower than previously thought, according to a new report.
The Russian Navy losing a fifth of its ballistic missile submarines or even three cruisers might be enough to trigger such a response.
The documents also point to continued Russian planning around a potential conflict with China, despite the strengthening of relations between the two countries in recent decades.
The source of the document leak is not revealed but is said to come from “Western sources.” The leak consisted of around 29 files written between 2008 and 2014. The classified papers, seen by the Financial Times, describe a threshold for using tactical nuclear weapons that is “lower than Russia has ever publicly admitted, according to experts who reviewed and verified the documents.”
Vladimir Putin’s forces have rehearsed using tactical nuclear weapons at an early stage of conflict with a major world power, according to the leaked Russian military files that include training scenarios for an invasion by China.
Bluff from Putin? Or reality?