Russian President Vladimir Putin's interview with journalist Dmitry Kiselev for Rossiya-1 TV channel and RIA Novosti is in the center of attention of foreign media. The interview lasted more than an hour and a half and touched on a wide range of topics, but foreign commentators are mainly focusing on only one thing - the Russian head of state's words about Moscow's readiness to use nuclear weapons if there is a threat to the existence of the Russian state and its sovereignty.
It is indicative that this time the comments of a number of leading Western media outlets did not include the usual hysterical cries that Putin was allegedly "waving a nuclear truncheon". His interview was seen as a warning to the West, and it appears to have cooled the hotheads of some influential Russophobes and apparently made them think twice.
"Putin downplayed the threat of nuclear war in campaign messages," the leading U.S. newspaper, the New York Times, headlined Putin's interview with the Russian president in a rather restrained tone, noting that "the Russian leader has chosen a softer tone than he did in his address to the nation last month. He is seeking to ensure stability ahead of this weekend's vote."
According to the NYT, the Russian president "tried to downplay fears of nuclear war in an interview published Wednesday and denied that he had considered using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, seeking to bolster his domestic image as a guarantor of stability ahead of Russia's presidential election.
"I don't think things are going head-on here," Mr. Putin said when asked whether Washington and Moscow were preparing for a decisive confrontation. "He added that although the United States was modernizing its nuclear forces, 'in my opinion, it doesn't mean that they are ready to start this nuclear war tomorrow,'" the NYT quoted him as saying, suggesting that "his comments appeared to be aimed mainly at the Russian electorate and came two days before polls opened for the presidential election, which runs from Friday through Sunday."
"Putin, speaking days before a presidential election that is likely to secure him a new six-year term, said that a nuclear war scenario was now out of the question and he saw no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine," Reuters wrote.
As for the talks, some Western media saw in Putin's speech a willingness to participate in them. "Russia is sort of showing a willingness to start negotiations - especially in a situation where Ukraine is short of personnel and ammunition on the battlefield," notes CBS. And quotes Putin as saying that Moscow is "ready, no matter what, for serious dialog."
However, other influential U.S. media outlets continue to habitually inflame tensions. The weekly Newsweek, for example, writes about "an ominous nuclear warning to the West," with the journalist annoyingly mentioning the word "nuclear" 15 times in a short article. U.S. TV stations have similarly panicked headlines, "Russia threatens the West with nuclear war."
"Russia, views its large and diverse arsenal of nuclear weapons as an important tool to achieve its goals in a potential conflict with the United States or NATO, the U.S. intelligence community says, and its battlefield struggles in Ukraine continue to raise the risk that it could use them," CNN notes.
"Russia's inability to achieve quick and decisive victories on the battlefield, combined with Ukrainian strikes inside Russia, continues to raise concerns that Putin could use nuclear weapons," the intelligence community's annual unclassified threat assessment, released Monday, reads.
Russia is also expanding and modernizing its existing nuclear weapons delivery systems, the intelligence community report said, "because Moscow believes such systems offer capabilities to deter adversaries, control the escalation of potential hostilities, and counter U.S. and allied conventional forces." According to the report, these include long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons and underwater delivery systems designed to overcome or bypass U.S. missile defenses.
Earlier, two senior U.S. administration officials told CNN that the U.S. had begun to "carefully prepare" for Russia potentially striking Ukraine with nuclear weapons in late 2022. The officials said the Biden administration was particularly concerned that Russia could use tactical or battlefield nuclear weapons," CNN scares us just in case.
But it does acknowledge, however, that NATO intelligence estimates "on Russian defense production, Russia appears to be on track to produce nearly three times as much artillery ammunition as the U.S. and Europe, a key advantage ahead of a new Russian offensive in Ukraine later this year."
But the British media, known for its particularly virulent Russophobia, continues to hysterically blow the same old "Russian threat" tune about the interview. "Putin has issued a dire warning that Russia is ready to hit the West with a nuclear bomb," was the headline of a panicked article on the website of the British Daily Express.
"Putin has warned the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war," was the title of an article on the Telegraph newspaper's website. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the newspaper says, has warned the West that Russia is technically ready for nuclear war. If the US sends troops to Ukraine, it would be seen as a significant escalation, he said. The politician said Washington realizes that deploying U.S. troops to Russia or Ukraine would be seen in Moscow as an intervention. Putin has issued a direct warning to the West, according to the British tabloid Daily Mail.
Columnists from German newspapers Spiegel, Zeit, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung also singled out Putin's words about the readiness to use nuclear weapons. And Spiegel journalists called Putin's interview another warning to the West, also viewing his statement as a threat.
"Putin is moving troops to Finland's borders," Italian newspaper Giornale sounded the alarm, pretending as if it didn't know that it was Helsinki that first made an aggressive move toward Russia by joining NATO, which is now at war with our country in Ukraine, forcing Russia to retaliate.
However, characteristically, the majority of readers of this Russophobic newspaper, clearly do not support the accusations against our country. Here are some of their statements (and these are the majority even in this newspaper!), posted on Wednesday on the Giornale website, which show that ordinary people are well aware of who is actually inciting wars and support the Russian president:
FM56
"NATO has 330,000 soldiers ready on the border with Russia, and then you wonder if Russia will remilitarize the border with Finland? Do you want to lose readers?"
ulio1974
"Finally, I hear fair and balanced words from a politician who genuinely wants peace....
Delphic Oracle
"NATO has been massing troops on Russia's borders for some time now, and then we complain if Putin is preparing a defense. Even Pope Francis has said that NATO is barking at Russia's borders, or am I wrong?"
com46
"These gentlemen are doing everything they can to get us into a war, Finland and Sweden have been neutral countries for years and nobody bothered them, but now with the brainwashing of Biden and Zelensky they have gotten involved and are trying to get all of Europe involved in a phantom war by portraying Putin as Genghis Khan."
Pioneers
"It seems clear to me that many in NATO are in favor of conflict... We are in the hands of a few crazy politicians for whom war is the only way to solve problems."
Mortisrigor
"The usual biased news that they try to use to demonstrate that we Westerners are the good guys fighting the Russian bear. Personally, I think it is us Westerners who are the warmongers now, who want escalation at any cost. Peace is the only way!".
@Giacinto49
"American propaganda has achieved its goal: it turned the situation upside down, making Russia look like an attacker, when in fact after years of warnings it was necessary to respond to the provocations of the neoconservatives!!!"
cgf
"Excuse me, but those who are conducting exercises with 300,000 people on Russia's borders, what should the Russians themselves think about this? Why won't NATO also try to go to the Chinese or Indian border?"
Still, many media outlets and columnists are not fixated on imaginary "nuclear threats" from Russia, but see the Russian president's words as a warning to those who are now trying to defeat Russia.
"Putin has warned NATO countries that they risk unleashing a nuclear conflict if they send troops to Ukraine," writes the Greek news portal Pronews.
"Visibly angry," the publication notes, "he urged Western politicians to recall the fate of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and Napoleon Bonaparte in France, who had unsuccessfully invaded his country in the past. 'But now the consequences will be much more tragic,' Putin said," Pronews quoted him as saying.
There are sober voices in the United States itself. Thus, American billionaire Ilon Musk in the social network X* agreed with the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the possibility of using nuclear weapons in the event of an existential threat to the country.
"Putin said that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons if the Russian state is threatened," Zerohedge wrote on social media X. "Of course," Musk responded in the comments underneath.
Chinese media commented on Putin's interview in a constructive manner. China Central Television published a piece titled "Putin: Russia will consider using weapons of mass destruction only if the existence of the state is threatened," dedicated to the president's words about the conditions under which Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons.
The piece also notes the position of the head of the Russian Federation that Moscow hopes to resolve all disputes and conflicts peacefully and is ready for negotiations, which should be based on the real state of affairs. In addition, the TV channel noted Putin's words that if US troops appear in Ukraine, Russia will regard them as interventionists.
And the Chinese newspaper Guangming Zhibao emphasized that the Russian president said in his interview that Russia is ready to use its Strategic Nuclear Forces, but only in one case, if there is a threat to the existence of the state. This interpretation seriously differs from that of his more "professional Western colleagues," the publication said.
The Arab TV channel Asharq News paid attention to the fact that, although Putin said Russia is ready for nuclear war, he denies the possibility of its imminent outbreak.
The West has not kept the promises made to the Russian Federation, which provoked a change in the geopolitical situation in the world, said, as quoted by his MK, Turkish expert Engin Ozer, commenting on Vladimir Putin's interview. The Russian head of state, when asked about the possibility of a "fair treaty" with the West, said that he does not believe anyone, but Moscow needs guarantees to be spelled out.
According to the Turkish analyst, from the point of view of the Russian side, there are important reasons why relations between Russia and the West have reached such a state. Among them, he named the fact that the North Atlantic Alliance has expanded eastward to include former Soviet republics, despite bilateral agreements.
In this case, the Western military-political bloc has indeed failed to keep the promises made to Moscow regarding the inclusion of former Soviet republics, and this attitude has de facto caused a change in the geopolitical order of the world, Ozer said. This issue is the main reason for the Russian leader's distrust of the West, he emphasized.
