Putin puts Russia's nuclear forces on alert, cites sanctions

[demmiblue]

Source: AP

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces put on high alert Sunday in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by leading NATO powers.

The order means Putin has ordered Russia’s nuclear weapons prepared for increased readiness to launch, raising the threat that the tensions could boil over into a nuclear war. In giving it, the Russian leader also cited hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself.

Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin directed the Russian defense minister and the chief of the military’s General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty.”

“Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” Putin said in televised comments.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-business-europe-moscow-2e4e1cf784f22b6afbe5a2f936725550

[Joinfortmill]

1. One of his fatal accidents needs to find him.

[KPN]

4. THIS ... big time.

[SheltieLover]

9. No kidding!

[Anon-C]

12. I agree.

That would be best for all involved.

[blue-wave]

19. He likes to use

Novichok or Polonium on others. Maybe he should do a little taste test.

[orangecrush]

29. +1

[pandr32]

36. Now would be nice

Russia needs to abandon him. I hope his officers refuse to follow orders.

[tclambert]

50. Colonel Mustardorov, in Vlad's bunker, with a dagger.

Did I win?

[PatSeg]

2. He really has lost his mind

[Cheezoholic]

3. This shits starting to get real real fast

Scary

[samsingh]

5. he lies like trump

[ananda]

6. I hope nobody is surprised..

Putin really is that crazy and desperate.

[EarthFirst]

7. As serious as this is...

This underscores how badly the Russian military is being defeated.

This is the last vestiges of a madman unable to control his military campaign.

[Pachamama]

11. +100000

[Lovie777]

8. Does he realize that he may be harming mother Russia? . . .

the man is insane.

[Lonestarblue]

10. Putin has no way to save face after his disastrous decision to invade Ukraine.

So now he’s ratcheting up the rhetoric. The question is the same I had when Trump was president. If he orders a nuclear launch, will the military do it? Or, will that be the final straw that results in a military coup in Russia to get rid of the madman? Putin is obviously destabilizing his own country with his illegal war on Ukraine. Are his oligarchs and military leaders willing to follow his every order, even if it destroys their own country? So far, the US and NATO are not actively fighting Russian troops in Ukraine. A nuclear attack will change that calculation quickly, and the generals know that the West has as much nuclear capability as they do. Combined, NATO and the US have a lot of non-nuclear firepower as well.

Putin has been in power too long, and his corruption and derangement are now jeopardizing Russia’s future. Time for some other Russian leaders to be brave and remove him from office.

[Cheezoholic]

15. The biggest difference between dRumf and putrid

when it comes to whether the military would execute nuclear orders is putrid has had over 20 years to place like minded wack jobs in charge of the military whereas dRumf did not. Something to ponder.

[orangecrush]

31. Good point

And Putin surely knows is that his actions cause us to ratchet up the defcon accordingly.

[JohnSJ]

17. It is an illusion to think that if he orders a nuclear launch that his military won't do it

The U.S. needs to make it very clear that if he does that, Russia will suffer unimaginable consequences for any action that uses nuclear weapons

[samsingh]

13. the madman may launch nukes based on some imaginary grievance

i hope defense systems can intercept the stray nuke.

[Socal31]

38. Ummm.

Umm...

If Russia launches a first strike, you die that day or starve 2 weeks later.

This needs to stop and now.

[Ghost Dog]

48. This is indeed the situation we are all in now.

... And vice-versa.

[JohnSJ]

14. It is really time for China to step up to the plate and let this madman know that they will not

support Russia

[thucythucy]

18. The leadership in China may love the idea of an actual shooting war

between Putin and the West.

I keep posting this but it bears repeating-- there is a long-standing dispute between China and Russia over their shared border separating Manchuria and Siberia. In the 1970s there were armed clashes along that frontier.

Putin's move into Ukraine may have disastrous consequences along Russia's eastern borders.

[JohnSJ]

28. No they don't.

[Rural_Progressive]

37. Yes and no

No because China really doesn't want the world destabilized in a non-controlled manner. Not good for business.

Yes because China has been salivating over all the area Russia has for them to move into not to mention the vast wealth of natural resources they would love to control and exploit.

How do those two feelings resolve themselves? I haven't a f*cking idea, way above my pay grade.

[Tree Lady]

44. China gets most of their money from us

We but a ton of stuff made there. They would collapse financially without us buying from them and employing a great deal of their people.

[SWBTATTReg]

16. I suspect that bringing these nuclear forces up in status preparation (a higher level of readiness)

will probably cause more problems than anticipated by Russia, being if they have had so many issues w/ a relatively simple invasion of a neighboring Country (Ukraine), such as tanks running out of gas, etc.

One would have to look and see where these supply and other issues are occurring, that is, why isn't there enough gas? I suspect probably being (or was) ripped off by the 3% of the top Russian elite that surround putin. Of course, I want to give far more credit to the Ukrainian Forces who are doing remarkably well, considering that a lot of people were writing them off already in early days.

Nuclear arms are very technical in nature, by their very nature, and I suspect that the overall maintenance and supporting equipment such as trucks, tools, special storage facilities, protection of such devices and / or equipment, etc. used with these weapons, was probably an easy target too, for the grifters that surround putin and his pathetic and greedy grifters. This is all my conjecture, for it makes sense in a way, that so much money was out there on the table for these people (and putin) to not resist doing a little stealing.

Of course, putin is way over-reacting and I think he's doing it to 'scare' the West from the surprisingly, unified front now aligned up against him and his reckless behavior. And of course, Pres. Biden isn't out there pounding the war drums, or anything like that. He's being Presidential, whereas tfg, is totally NOT being presidential, and who is looking more and more like a mistake of the generations in being elected a president of the U.S.

[dalton99a]

20. He might very well throw a tactical nuclear missile at Kyiv

because he can

[marie999]

24. He has a lot more tactical nuclear weapons than NATO.

If he will use one against Ukraine, NATO should be ready for him to use them against some NATO countries. The only thing then is for the Russian military to assassinate him. Anything less could start WWIII.

[yaesu]

21. So what does happen when a leader of a nuclear superpower becomes unhinged? How will

the US & NATO deal with it? Targeted assassination?

[shelshaw]

22. We just lived through 4 years of it

And they did nothing

[yaesu]

26. If the russian agent orange invaded Canada & threatened nukes if anyone tried to stop him

that would be a closer example. Maybe if tRump had dictatorship power over all government & military he would have helped pooty invade Ukraine, that wouldn't surprise me.

[RobinA]

53. There's A Lot

of that going around lately.

[anti stupid]

23. first course of action

Broadcast this message from Putin and use it to show how insane this guy is. Second course of action let the Russian people know that if Putin uses nuclear weapons there will be an equally appropriate response. Third ... keep calm and carry on and let the Russians continue to dig themselves into a hole that they will want to get out of. Fourth to find a way to let the Russians get out of the hole without looking inferior to save face. 5th Return to the status quo in Ukraine as much as possible. 6. Strengthen Natos defensive capabilities

[Bayard]

25. "Unfriendly actions" ??!!!

What can you even say to that? Hitting him personally in the pocket seems to be working, along with--they're saying mean things about me!

[Justice matters.]

43. We see a LOT of "unfriendly actions" from him in Ukraine these days...

Too bad we can't kick him out of Ukraine the way we kicked Saddam out of Kuwait.

[SunSeeker]

46. Sadam didn't have nukes. Big difference. nt

[notinkansas]

27. I have believed from the start that putin has lost his mind.

Given that he seems to be making preparations to use nuclear weapons, is anybody else concerned about having nearly all of our government in one building for the state of the union address? Seems like it would be a good time for a virtual address.

He's crazy. Crazy enough to make good on his nuclear threats? I suspect nobody knows. It might just be all insane bluster.

There has to be somebody in Russia who will stop this madman.

[C Moon]

42. Surrounded by big rigs.

[paleotn]

30. Hey, Putie! We've got them too.

In various MIRVs, there's several warheads with your name stenciled on them.

sort of.

Like there were layers of checks and balances between Orange Mussolini and our nuclear deterrent, the same applies to Russia. I doubt seriously the Russian power structure would allow a first strike.

[Socal31]

39. Wishful thinking.

Russians will not hesitate.

Hug your loved ones extra tight tonight folks.

[paleotn]

51. Like the old Sting song, if the Russians love their children too.

They do. Self preservation keeps us safe to a great extent. They don't want themselves or their families to die. And they know they most certainly will if they do a first strike. The whole point of MAD.

[LiberalLovinLug]

32. Aggressive statements! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

41. Good one

[AngryOldDem]

33. ENOUGH.

Take him out. Christ knows we’ve done that with much less dangerous dictators.

I think we all know where this is headed. That fucker would not think twice about a preemptive strike.

I had a bad feeling when he moved those flamethowers into Ukraine yesterday.

[mackdaddy]

34. I think that the best hope might be the Uber rich Oligarchs around Putin to do something permanent.

Putin has shared the Billions in spoils with this group, but he has already made it difficult to spend the money they do have, and Billions do not do you any good if you are dead. Or vaporized in a mushroom cloud.

This group would be way better off seeing that the one guy takes a flight off a 20 story balcony, or has a salt shaker of Polonium or maybe a Novochuk aftershave.

They could claim it was all the crazy guy, have the sanctions removed and resume their quiet decadent grifting lifestyles as parasites of the Russian people.

[Mustellus]

35. This has happened in the USA twice in my lifetime....

First under Nixon, where Kissinger and Haig and others discretely told the military to check with them before carrying out any ... dramatic .. orders.

The second recently, when Kelly and Esper and all the Joint Chiefs swamped the military with reminders that our oath was to the Constitution, not any one person. (I was there. Two, three emails a week. Didn't even know I was on the friends list of the General of the Air Force. )

This means Putin is out of options. And his subordinates, military, oligarch, whatever are going to start contemplating swallowing a defeat in Ukraine to preserve Mother Russia.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

40. "If I can't get my way no one can!!!!" Pooty Poop

[EndlessWire]

45. I think this was timed for the UN meeting tomorrow.

I think he thought that Ukraine would fold, and that things would be controllable according to HIS time table. I don't think he ever thought that Ukraine would show citizens on TV how to make a molotov cocktail (ironically named after a Russian,) or fight to the death with every last man, woman, and child.

Now, he can't keep up. And, tomorrow, that entire UN General Assembly with 193 members, plus maybe the Holy See and Palestine, are going to show up and say very nasty things to the Ambassador. Maybe even kick Russia out!

It is a sobering thought.

Russian Warmonger, go f*ck yourself!

Ukraine,

[SunSeeker]

47. How is repeatedly threatening the West with nukes over the last week not an "aggressive statement"?

[moriah]

49. This nuke talk shows just how paranoid/pathetic he is.

I don't like when anybody does that in politics, but especially not a country nibbling on its neighbor because its leader has never recognized it as independent of a past empire.

Yes, we will do everything that doesn't involve our own boots on the ground/stuff in the air aggressively to help Ukraine defend itself/get Russia to stop, and the economic situation must be hurting right now for Putin to go there.

But nobody wants nukes to go off, so I wish this would go a little less like the start of Threads (just substituting which country Russia was nibbling at after helping overthrow -- in this case only local by recognizing the smaller areas -- government). There are so many that didn't grow up with bomb drills that we knew were pointless anyway -- they don't have those memories.

So the fact he started out preparing his people for him to wave this around, and has now escalated that further... it really shows how weak he is as a leader, at least to me. He could quit this anytime he chooses. He doesn't need to throw around the idea of bombs going off.

[Sparky 1]

52. Which way is the wind blowing?

[AntiFascist]

54. No one wants to see nuclear war, but...

I wonder how many Russians, at this point, would like to see the Kremlin obliterated?