In a warning to the West, Putin says Russian tactical nukes are being put in Belarus to stop a 'strategic defeat'
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US and Western officials quickly brushed off Putin's most recent batch of nuclear threats, which have been frequent since the war in Ukraine began.
Putin made a fresh set of nuclear threats this week after confirming Russian warheads were moved to Belarus.
The Russian president said the escalatory step was meant to serve as a warning to the West.
US and Western intelligence officials, however, were quick to brush off Putin's most recent threats.
"This is part of nuclear messaging and nuclear rhetoric that we have seen over some time, a part of a pattern we have seen over several years," Stoltenberg said in Friday comments, "where Russia has modernized nuclear weapons, deployed more nuclear weapons – also up in the High North – but now also for the first time permanently deploying weapons to Belarus."
The Russian president compared the move to the deployment of US nuclear weapons in various European countries over the years. This is the first time Moscow has moved such weapons outside its own country since the Soviet Union fell.
"Why should we threaten the whole world?" Putin responded when asked about the likelihood of using the weapons. "I have already said that the use of extreme measures is possible in case there is a danger to Russian statehood."
Putin said this week that the transfer of the weapons to Belarus would be done by the end of summer.
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