Russia has had no problem working up a nuclear narrative in recent weeks, particularly escalating their tone whenever facing a major setback in their invasion of Ukraine.
This week, as the US mulls sending a massive $33 billion military aide package to Kyiv, one of the Kremlin’s most well-known mouthpieces is rattling off some terribly nonchalant nuclear warnings.
Margarita Simonyan, editor of state broadcaster RT and one of the Kremlin’s highest-profile mouthpieces, declared on TV last night that the idea of Putin pressing the red button is ‘more probable’ than the idea that he will allow Russia to lose the war.
‘Either we lose in Ukraine,’ she said, ‘or the Third World War starts. I think World War Three is more realistic, knowing us, knowing our leader.
But then…
‘The most incredible outcome, that all this will end with a nuclear strike, seems more probable to me than the other course of events.
‘This is to my horror on one hand,’ she told a panel of experts shifting nervously in their seats, ‘but on the other hand, it is what it is. We will go to heaven, while they will simply croak… We’re all going to die someday.’
The Kremlin’s nuclear threats began soon after the Russian army was summarily repelled from Kyiv, exposing a weakness that the world was not expecting.
