Someone in the West is getting cold feet. Probably reflecting government divisions inside the EU, Italy’s establishment daily Corriere della Sera covered commentators in Russian media who say that Putin is not bluffing when he threatens the use of nuclear weapons, if the red line is crossed. One of them is Mikhail Rostovsky, who writes for Moskovsky Komsomolets and is characterized as “a commentator dear to the Russian President.”
Rostovsky warns that Putin’s answer to the question on NATO’s decision to allow Kyiv to strike inside Russian territory, was “only apparently packaged in technical considerations. Behind the series of details, an absolutely unequivocal ultimatum is hidden.”
The situation is more serious than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Rostovsky wrote. At that time, there were only two players, Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy. “Today, there is a real crowd on the side of the West. Washington is still the leader, no doubt, but there are other ‘leaders’ coming forward. To what level of provocation will we react in the way Putin is alluding to?
“We have not yet reached the point of no return, and I hope we won’t reach it. But I also hope that in the West, they should better listen to Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] and do not think that he is bluffing.”
