CIA boss urges the West to not take Russia's nuclear threats 'seriously'; here's why

As the Russia-Ukraine war continues to escalate, CIA boss Bill Burns said that the Western leaders shouldn’t be intimidated by the Kremlin’s nuclear threats. The proclamation from the CIA head came on Saturday amid debate over whether Anglo-French Storm Shadow missiles should be used inside Russia.

Burns who attended a panel discussion with the head of MI6, Richard Moore, recalled that the US had brushed off a previous Russian nuclear scare in autumn 2022. He insisted that threats from Moscow should not always be taken literally.

“Putin’s a bully. He’s going to continue to sabre rattle from time to time,” Burns said. “We cannot afford to be intimidated by that sabre rattling … we got to be mindful of it. The US has provided enormous support for Ukraine, and I’m sure the president will consider other ways in which we can support them," the CIA boss furthered.

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CIA boss urges world to not take every threat from Russia literally

While giving his take on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, Burns was asked about the growing nervousness in Washington and other Western allies due to the risk of escalating the war by giving permission for Storm Shadow, a missile with a range of at least 190 miles, to be used inside Russia.

“None of us should take lightly the risks of escalation,” the veteran spy chief said at an event hosted by The Financial Times. “There was a moment in the fall [autumn] of 2022 when I think there was a genuine risk of the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons,” by Russia in Ukraine, Burns said, but he believed such concerns should not be taken too seriously. “I never thought … we should be unnecessarily intimidated by that,” he added.

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Burns recalled that at that time, US President Joe Biden had sent him to pass on a direct warning to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of the Russian foreign intelligence service, at a meeting in Turkey in November 2022. He insisted that the meeting was conducted with the intention “to make very clear what the consequences of that kind of escalation would be” – and noted that a similar approach was in place today.

So far, the White House has been hesitant to allow the use of Storm Shadow inside Russia, despite repeated pleas from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, including one made on Friday.

Burns on Gaza crisis

During the panel discussion, the CIA director noted that the US was working very hard on fresh proposals for a ceasefire in Gaza with new “texts and creative formulas”. He insisted that a “new plan” is being devised with the help of mediators from Qatar and Egypt and it would emerge “in the next several days”.

However, Burns emphasised that it is the question of political will whether Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and the Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar were willing to strike a deal. “Whether or not leaders on both sides recognise that enough is enough and that the time has come to finally make some hard choices," the CIA director averred.

In the past, Israel has “severely degraded” Hamas’s military capabilities over the past 11 months, Burns said. However, the CIA boss admitted that the Jewish nation did not eliminate the movement in the ravaging war. “It is also a movement and an idea,” the spy chief said, and you could only “kill an idea with a better idea”, meaning there needed to be some long-term hope for Palestinians.

With inputs from agencies.