Skip to main content
The LaRouche Organization

Main navigation

Main navigation
  • About
    About
    • 2022 LaRouche Economics Classes
    • Intro to LaRouche: Class Series
  • Campaigns
    Campaigns
    • The LaRouche Oasis Plan for Southwest Asia
    • 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
    • Saturday Manhattan Project at 2pm EDT
    • Weekly Helga Webcasts
    • Thursday Fireside Chat at 9pm EDT
    • Diane Sare Friday Symposium
    • Sunday LaRouche Show 10am EDT
    • Weekly Battle Report, Wednesdays 8pm EDT
  • Actions
    Actions
    • TLO Mass Leaflet: Will There Be Thermonuclear Fireworks by the Fourth of July?
    • Circulate This Bulletin: End The U.S.-British Special Relationship!
    • Leaflets
  • Donate
    Donate
    • Make a Donation
    • Become a Member!
  • Sign-up
  • Articles
  • Interventions

Social Media

Social Media
  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • X
  • Soundcloud
  • Spotify

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

LaRouche 8

Only Remedy to War Escalation: Intervention for a New World Economic, Security Architecture

June 23, 2025 (EIRNS)—FLASH. U.S. President Donald Trump, at about 6 p.m. local time in Washington, issued a Truth Post reporting that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire. He began, “CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!” and wrote that the ceasefire would begin in six hours, and in 12 hours , the “War will be considered ENDED.” The following update, written before that announcement, remains relevant.

Wesley Clark Map

Tragedy Need Not Be Destiny

June 22, 2025 (EIRNS)—With the initiation by the United States of war on Iran this weekend, the final military objective of the 2001 “seven countries in five years” plan revealed on March 2, 2007 by Gen. Wesley Clark in an interview with Amy Goodman, the War Party is on the move once again. Journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out yesterday that “Iran just became the eighth Muslim-majority country that the U.S. has bombed in the last 15 years, from Obama to Trump to Biden to Trump.” The list comprises Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, and now Iran.

Mobilize to Stop WWIII After the US Strikes on Iran

Mobilize to Stop WWIII After the US Strikes on Iran

Circulate the mass-circulation statement from the LaRouche Organization, "Will There Be Thermonuclear Fireworks by the Fourth of July?"

Breadcrumb

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

Footer

  • Privacy

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • X
  • Soundcloud
  • Spotify