Le Figaro: Putin continues his nuclear blackmail... What deterrent force has Russia put on alert?

The French newspaper "Le Figaro" reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his nuclear blackmail, as, 3 days after threatening "those who would try to interfere" in Ukraine with "unprecedented consequences", the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff ordered the establishment of deterrence forces. The Russian army is in a state of a special system of combat readiness, in order to obtain a political objective by force and threat.

Igor Delanoy, deputy director of the French-Russian Observatory in Moscow, says that this alert could be a response to two events, "the devastating sanctions taken by the Westerners" and "the direct military assistance they provided," considering it "a form of common hostility."

Delanoy, an expert in Russian geopolitics, puts forward a third hypothesis, which is that "Putin, through these statements, seeks to carry out large-scale military operations in the coming hours, including an attack on Kyiv, and therefore he reminds of the language of the clear threat that he possesses the largest nuclear arsenal." in the world and assures that it is ready to use it if the West thwarts its plans.

6,000 nuclear warheads

The newspaper report states that the Russian “deterrent force” is already enormous, as Russia possesses a total of 2,565 attack nuclear warheads, including 1,185 nuclear warheads that can be launched by 306 intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to the annual report issued in February by the Federation of American Scientists, which is A research center specializing in strategic security.

Russia also has - according to the report - about 800 nuclear warheads installed on dozens of strategic ballistic missiles that can be launched from the sea to land, by 3 nuclear ballistic missile submarines, in addition to the fact that the Russian army is able to shoot down 580 warheads from Tupolev bomber aircraft.

Defensively, Russia is also well equipped, and can count on 387 nuclear warheads that can be installed on nearly 900 anti-ballistic missiles, in addition to 500 warheads launched from Tupolev, Sukhoi and MiG fighter planes, and about 1,912 nuclear warheads ready for deployment. In the event of an attack, Russian defenses also include a missile shield, space control systems, air defense and anti-satellite.

In total - as the newspaper says - Russia has nearly 6 thousand nuclear warheads, which makes it the leading power in the world in this field before the United States, but not all of these weapons are ready to work, as researchers Hans Christensen and Matt Korda claim, in their inventory of the arsenal. Russian nuclear weapons, that what is currently deployed and ready for use does not exceed 1,600 nuclear warheads.

But the Russian "deterrence force" mentioned by Putin also takes into account the traditional deterrence of long-range cruise missiles with a highly accurate offensive capability, and Delanoe stresses that "this arsenal has been used since the beginning" of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

3 hypotheses

What does this "alertness" ordered by Putin change, the newspaper asked?

The researcher replied that the term that caught his attention is the phrase "special system", because nuclear forces by definition are always on alert, but the idea is to be able to respond automatically, said General Boris Solovyov, who served in the Russian Strategic Missile Forces and in the General Staff. The general of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily newspaper, that this is "the highest level of combat readiness, and the next level is the level of full alert," which means that the "red button" can be activated at any time, noting that the "nuclear briefcase" is available only to three people, who are the president Minister of Defense and Commander of the General Staff.

The newspaper asked what is behind Putin's threat of nuclear deterrence, which means unwillingness to use it. Delanoy replied, "What is striking is that the Russian nuclear arsenal has, above all, an offensive capability on two levels, as if Putin is threatening to use it on the first level."

On this basis, Delanoe imagines several scenarios, despite the impossibility of predicting the Russian president’s desires, noting that Putin may only want to “shorten the chain of command for launching” nuclear weapons, but “we can also imagine missiles containing depleted uranium or tactical nuclear charges.” The last hypothesis is "the possibility of equipping some launchers with dual-capacity missiles armed with a conventional and nuclear charge."

Delanoy warns that Putin's statements are an escalation, and that they must be taken seriously, unlike many Western experts who see them as a simple trick that proves the president's frustration with the Ukrainian military resistance.