Photo/Illutration Russian President Vladimir Putin announces the start Oct. 29 of military exercises that presuppose strategic nuclear weapons would be used. (Captured from the Russian presidential executive office website)

President Vladimir Putin has signed a presidential decree to lower Russia’s threshold on the use of nuclear weapons. This move carries the implicit threat that Russia is prepared more than ever to use nuclear weapons, which it claims to hold as a deterrent to war, to prevent more foreign interference in its own war of aggression.

Once again, Russia has demonstrated a blatant disregard for international norms of law and order.

A document titled “On Approval of the Fundamentals of State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence,” which was revised for the first time in four years, explicitly states that an attack on Russia by a non-nuclear state with the support of a nuclear state will be considered by Moscow as a “joint attack.”

The presidential decree also states that Russia could use nuclear weapons in the event of a mass launch of cruise missiles, drones or other aerial craft crossing Russian borders.

The previous criteria for considering the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons said Russia would weigh the option only when the very “existence of the state is threatened.” This passage has been rewritten to say Russia could use nuclear weapons when facing “a critical threat to Russia’s sovereignty or territorial integrity.”

Under the updated nuclear doctrine, the cross-border attack on Russia’s southern Kursk region by Ukraine starting in August, supported by the United States and Europe, could be interpreted as giving the Kremlin a reason for tapping its nuclear arsenal.

Russia had been working on revising its nuclear doctrine even before the start of cross-border attacks on Ukraine. However, Putin signed the decree shortly after it was reported that U.S. President Joe Biden had authorized the use of U.S.-supplied longer-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia. The timing indicates that Putin’s move was intended as a warning to Western military support for Ukraine.

Since the day he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, Putin has brandished nuclear weapons to warn the West not to intervene. Subsequently, as the United States and Europe expanded and upgraded their military support to Ukraine, Putin has consistently threatened to use nuclear arms through a series of steps that included the announcement of the deployment of nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus.

However, the updated nuclear doctrine does not indicate that Russia will immediately use nuclear weapons. Overreacting to the action would play right into Russia’s hands.

Nonetheless, it is an undeniable fact that Russia has lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons. Countries, including China, that have tacitly condoned Russia’s reckless actions should not underestimate the seriousness of the situation and must issue serious warnings to the Kremlin.

The current international order, which allows only the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, including Russia, to possess nuclear weapons, presupposes that these powers are sincerely committed to respecting the principle of sovereign equality and refraining from the intimidation or use of force, in line with the ideals of the U.N. Charter.

Yet, the grim reality is that nuclear weapons are being used as tools for an act of aggression that runs counter to the U.N. Charter.

In announcing its decision to award the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), the Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed its deep concern that the “nuclear taboo,” or the international norm that considers the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable, is weakening.

Putin’s action should prompt the world to reaffirm that it is an urgent and unavoidable task for humanity to move toward nuclear abolition.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 21

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