'Western hardliners pushed us': Kremlin on why Russia revised nuclear weapons doctrine

The Kremlin has said that the Western hardliners forced Russia to revise its nuclear weapons doctrine.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed revisions to the regime's nuclear weapons doctrine . The proposed revisions, which are set to be formalised soon, would lower the bar significantly for the use of nuclear weapons.

Even as Ukraine and the West slammed Putin’s revised nuclear doctrine, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that “Western hardliners” forced Russia to revise the nuclear doctrine.

“While sober heads heard [Russian signals], [Western] hardliners are pushing on with this reckless policy course that may have very negative consequences for everybody. The developments have clearly necessitated formalizing new terms,” said Peskov, according to state-run TASS news agency.

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Peskov said that the way tensions have intensified at Russia’s borders with the participation of Western nuclear powers forced the revision of nuclear doctrine.

Peskov said, “How things evolved globally, the way tensions intensified near our borders, with nuclear powers taking part in the conflict around Ukraine and NATO pulling its infrastructure to our borders — all this has necessitated amendments to the nuclear doctrine.”

The revisions to the nuclear doctrine have been finalised and will be formalised soon, said Peskov.

Last week, Putin announced that the revised Russian nuclear weapons doctrine would consider a non-nuclear state’s attack on Russia, if aided by a nuclear-armed state, as a joint nuclear attack. Such an attack would be eligible for a nuclear retaliation.

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This was a thinly-veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against supporters of Ukraine in the West. The revised nuclear doctrine comes at a time when Ukraine is seeking permission from the United States to use US- and British-supplied long-range missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia .

In the same speech, Putin further said that Russia could even retaliate with nuclear weapons if attacked with conventional weapons.

If Russia detected the start of a massive launch of non-nuclear missiles, aircraft, and drones that pose a “critical threat” to Russia’s sovereignty, then Russia could retaliate with nuclear weapons, said Putin about the revised nuclear doctrine.

This is not the first time that Russia has invoked the threat of nuclear weapons against the West since launching the war on Ukraine. Putin as well his top officials have made such threats frequently since invading Ukraine in 2022 .