Putin's 'nuclear threat' is the diplomacy of genocide against the people of Ukraine

 When that 'dyed-in-the-wool' Soviet Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, warns that,

"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West on Monday not to underestimate the elevated risks of nuclear conflict over Ukraine and said he viewed NATO as being "in essence" engaged in a proxy war with Russia by supplying Kyiv with weaponry. (Lidia Kelly and Ronald Popeski : Reuters : 26 April 2022) (my emphasis) (cf. also: Rory Sullivan, Namita Singh, and Zoe Tidman :The Independent : 26 April 2022) ",

this signals that Putin now knows that his Russian army is failing in their war with Ukraine.

This is further reinforced by Putin having to announce to the Russian people that,

"This morning, the Federal Security Service stopped the activities of a terrorist group that planned to attack and kill one famous Russian TV journalist," he [Putin] said.
...
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said six neo-nationalist Russian citizens plotted to kill Russian journalist Vladimir Solovyov, a vocal supporter of Mr Putin and the war in Ukraine, at the behest of the Ukrainian state security service (SBU)." (Amar Mehta : Sky News : 25 April 2022) (my emphasis)
 

Now why would he announce that the alleged conspiracy theorists were "Russian citizens"?

Simply to reinforce in the minds of the Russian people that those Russian citizens who are against his war with Ukraine are, in effect, 'traitors' that need to be identified and punished.

Just as Lavrov is now wielding Putin's 'nuclear' big stick against the West, Putin is wielding his FSB and his 'legal' big stick against the people of Russia.

As he argues,

"However, as they [the West] begin to understand  that this is impossible, another mission    ( the conspiracy to kill a Russian journalist) comes to the fore to destroy Russia from the inside. There is a hitch there to. They cannot succeed in that." (cf: video above)

And hours after Putin gave this rather feeble and somehat confused speech, Chris Pleasance, Will Stewart, and Stephen M. Lepore reported that,

"Flames lit up the sky over Russia in the early hours after suspected Ukrainian missile strikes blew up two oil storage facilities supplying Putin's troops fighting for control of Donbas.

The Transneft-Druzhba Oil Depot, located in the city of Bryansk around 70 miles from the Ukrainian border, caught fire at 2am local time before a second fire broke out at a nearby military facility around 15 minutes later, Russian state media said this morning." (Mail Online : 25 April 2022) (my emphasis)

It is no wonder that, as reported by Simon Lewis,

"Russia is failing in its war aims but Ukraine is succeeding, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday after he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met President Volodymyr Zelinskiy and Ukrainian officials in Kyiv." (MSN (Reuters) : 25 April 2022) (my emphasis) 

And as reported by Julian Borger (right),

"At a press conference in Poland after a surprise visit to Kyiv, Lloyd Austin was asked if he would now define US goals differently from those set out soon after the Russian invasion. In response, he started out with the established administration line about helping Ukraine retain its sovereignty and defend its territory.
...
Then Austin added a second goal: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” That meant Russia should “not have the capability to very quickly reproduce” the forces and equipment that had been lost in Ukraine." (The Guardian : 25 April 2022) (my emphasis)

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's second goal refers not only to ensuring that Ukraine will, in future, be able on its own to protect itself from any future Russian invasion of its soil, but also that the genocidal nature of Putin's war with Ukraine will not happen to any other country in the future.

It is no wonder that in his speech (cf. Sky News video) mentioning that alleged plan to attack and kill a famous Russian TV journalist, Putin also said,

" What can I say in this connection, [alleged plan to kill a Russian journalist] to our surprise high-ranking diplomats in Europe and the United States call on their Ukrainian satellites to use all their capacities to achieve victory on the battlefield. Our partners from the USA and Europe use really strange diplomacy. Even diplomats now encourage this." 

Yet it is Putin that is now using the diplomacy of genocide to try to achieve his aims in Ukraine.

And it is to prevent Russia using this diplomacy of genocide in the future that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, ".... want's to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

(to be continued)