In a lengthy post dated Aug. 22, Simplicius reviews an August 12 Financial Times article on the secret Russian documents that reportedly show that the Russian navy has trained to target important locations in Europe with nuclear missiles. Among the elements that Simplicius highlights is this “truly eye-opening detail” which is “the claim that these secret internal Russian documents include plans for a potential nuclear ‘demonstration’ strike, if things really begin escalating.” The quote from FT is this: “The presentation also references the option of a so-called demonstration strike—detonating a nuclear weapon in a remote area ‘in a period of immediate threat of aggression’ before an actual conflict to scare Western countries. Russia has never acknowledged such strikes are in its doctrine.”
This is entirely different from Russia setting up a nuclear test to get NATO’s attention. This “is particularly eye-opening because it is something far more aggressive and threatening,” Simplicius writes. “It would entail Russia not setting up a test, but actually live-firing a real tactical nuke from one of their many systems into a remote area. The simple acknowledgment that Russia even has such contingencies drawn up is fairly startling and clearly draws a heavy shadow over the now-escalating Ukrainian conflict, where NATO’s involvement continues to grow more out of control each day.”
As for Russia’s nuclear threshold, FT says the following: “Criteria for a potential nuclear response range from an enemy incursion on Russian territory to more specific triggers, such as the destruction of 20% of Russia’s strategic ballistic missile submarines.”
