Gilbert Doctorow, a leading expert on Russia affairs, titled his latest article “The Coming Existential Threat: Do We Act in Common or Is It Going To Be Every Man for Himself?” He describes the rapidly spiraling relationship between the U.S. and Russia, which he says is “very close to Doomsday.” He reports from his viewing of Russia’s “Sixty Minutes” TV program the other day, hosted by State Duma member Yevgeny Popov, that Russia has taken the escalations by the West very seriously. Popov highlights comments from U.S. Lt. Gen. General Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. forces in Europe from 2014-2017, who, in recent appearances on CNN and in The Economist, has made aggressive calls for the West to escalate its military aid to Ukraine with a full line-up of ATACMS and other long-range missiles to take Crimea, and to be able to strike deep into Russia.
Doctorow then says: “One of the regular panelists on `Sixty Minutes’ then faced the cameras directly and said that Russia’s nuclear doctrine is under revision in light of these aggressive plans being aired in the United States, so that Russia is headed towards a policy of ‘preventive’ tactical nuclear strikes, similar to what the United States has. Moreover, if Ukraine targets Crimea and heartland Russia, then Russia will respond according to plans now being laid down. These plans foresee counter strikes against U.S military installations in Europe and in the Continental United States using hypersonic missiles. The panelist calls for this threat of counter strikes in Europe and the U.S. to be made public and explicit, so that no one is in doubt about what to expect from the Kremlin.”
