Skip to main content
The LaRouche Organization

Main navigation

Main navigation
  • About
    About
    • Why “LaRouchePAC” No Longer Represents the Policies of Lyndon LaRouche
    • 2022 LaRouche Economics Classes
    • Intro to LaRouche: Class Series
  • Campaigns
    Campaigns
    • Stop NATO's World War
    • Stop Global Britain's Green War Drive!
    • The Coming US Economic Miracle
    • Crush the Green New Deal
    • Exonerate LaRouche
    • Four Laws
    • History
  • Programs
    Programs
    • Daily Harley Updates
    • Weekly Helga Webcasts
    • Thursday Fireside Chat at 9pm EST
    • Saturday Manhattan Project at 2pm EST
    • Midwest Discussion
  • Actions
    Actions
    • Tell Your Congressman: Stop NATO Driving Us to Nuclear War!
    • Leaflets
  • Donate
  • Sign-up
  • Articles

Social Media

Social Media
  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • Twitter

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Article
  3. 2022
  4. 12
  5. 12
12 Dec 2022

Putin Answers: Yes, We Are Thinking of Adopting the US's First Strike Doctrine

By Gretchen Small
Share icon
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Messenger
  • Share via WhatsApp
  • Copy site URL
World WarLeading DevelopmentsPutinNuclear War
Putin

Russian President Putin

Russian President Putin was asked in his Dec. 9 press conference following the Eurasian Economic Union summit, to explain what he meant when he said two days before, that "If Russia does not use nuclear weapons first, it won’t use them second, either." As the reporter for Russia’s Channel One noted, that statement had "caused an uproar." Putin's dramatic reply to the question has yet to receive a serious policy response from Western leaders, or from Western media for that matter. The best that U.S. Secretary of Defense Gen. Lloyd Austin could muster, was a flippant dismissal of Putin's deadly serious discussion of the consequences of the U.S.’s own preemptive nuclear-strike policy and stepped-up military posture to carry out such a strategic strike, as merely "deeply irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling" by the Russians.

The center of Putin's carefully-delivered, long response (available in full on the Kremlin site) was this:

"The United States has this theory of a preventive strike. This is the first point. Now the second point. They are developing a system for a disarming strike. What does that mean? It means striking at control centers with modern high-tech weapons to destroy the opponent’s ability to counterattack, and so on….

"There were plans to deliver a preventive disarming strike with hypersonic weapons. The United States does not have these weapons, but we do. Regarding a disarming strike, perhaps we should think about using the achievements of our US partners and their ideas about how to ensure their own security. We are just thinking about this. No one was shy about discussing it out loud in the past. This is the first point.

"The United States has a theory and even practice. They have the concept of a preventive strike in their strategy and other policy documents. We do not. Our Strategy talks about a retaliatory strike….

"After the early warning system receives a signal indicating a missile attack, hundreds of our missiles are launched and they cannot be stopped. But it is still a retaliatory strike. What does that mean? It means that enemy missile warheads will fall on the territory of the Russian Federation. This cannot be avoided. They will fall anyway. True, nothing will remain of the enemy, because it is impossible to intercept hundreds of missiles. And this is, without a doubt, a potent deterrent.

"But if a potential adversary believes it is possible to use the preventive strike theory, while we do not, this still makes us think about the threat that such ideas in the sphere of other countries’ defense pose to us. That is all I have to say about that."

Putin

Related Content

Moses

Why Did Moses Take Forty Years?

March 23—Forty years ago today, President Reagan shocked the world, announcing that the United States would make nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete,” employing advanced scientific principles (lasers, plasma physics, electromagnetic pulses, etc.) to make it an order of magnitude cheaper to kill missiles than to build them. Further, the strategic defense systems would be provided to the Russians—then the communist U.S.S.R. Reagan had adopted the program as designed, laid out, and campaigned for by Lyndon LaRouche.

LaRouche8

China’s Peace Plan for Ukraine Must Promptly Go on the World’s Agenda

March 22—Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up two-days of intense summit meetings in Moscow on Wednesday, March 22, and announced a fruitful strengthening of their bilateral relationship on all fronts, along with a call for the international community to recognize that, “to settle the Ukraine crisis, the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be respected,” as their Joint Statement on strategic issues asserted. The two leaders stated that it was necessary to “update and improve the international security architecture,” and they specifically called for urgent consideration of China’s 12-point peace proposal for Ukraine.

Manhattan Project March 25, 2023

The “Harmony of Interests”: For a Durable International Strategic and Development Architecture

Join Harley Schlanger, Paul Gallagher and Bill Jones for the discussion! Send questions and thoughts to questions@laroucheorganization.com

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Article
  3. 2022
  4. 12
  5. 12

Footer

  • Privacy

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • Twitter