The fuse of Putin's nuclear war threat is burning fast towards WW3.

As Putin, true to his words, sets off his "sham" elections in Ukraine's Donbas, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, Dmitri Medvedev, Putin's glove puppet, underlines Putin's threat to set off a nuclear war after these sham elections.

As reported by Pavel Polityuk

"The referendums have been widely condemned by the West as
illegitimate and a precursor to illegal annexation. There will be no
independent observers, and much of the pre-war population has fled." (Reuters : 23 September 2022) (my emphasis)

When the already forgone results are announced and those territories, according to Putin, become part of the Russian Federation then, as reported by David Harding,

"Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia and Vladimir Putin loyalist, has warned Russia will use nuclear weapons if it believes territories are under attack.

“Russia is ready to defend territories added to it with all means ...." (The Independent : 22 September 2022) (my emphasis)

It is therefore no wonder that yesterday Lavrov, after giving his 'defence of Putin and the war in Ukraine' to the assembled members of the UN Security Council, immediately scuttled off.

As reported by MSN (Bloomberg),

"Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov walked out of a United Nations Security Council meeting where the US and its allies were criticizing President Vladimir Putin’s government over the invasion of Ukraine, in a stark demonstration of the divisions opened up by the war.

Lavrov arrived at the meeting late, delivered his speech and left once it was done, refusing to stay for the speeches that accused Russia of committing war crimes and violating the UN Charter." (MSN (Bloomberg) : 22 September 2022) (my emphasis)

 Nick Schifrin : PBS News : 22 September 2022

And as Lavrov scuttled out of the UN Security Coulcil Meeting, many are now reporting on the panicked exodus from Russia of Russian men escaping Putin's mobilisation decree.

As reported by Marc Bennetts (left),

"From Moscow to deepest Siberia, Russian men of fighting age are scrambling to flee the country after President Putin announced that military reservists would be deployed to Ukraine. For some, it is already too late." (The Times : 23 September 2022) (my emphasis)

CNN : 23 September 2022 Russian men fleeing

The Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962, when Soviet First Secretary Nikita Kruschev threatened to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, and US President Kennedy immediately blockaded Cuba to prevent those Russian missiles from reaching Cuba, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. (cf: Wikipedia) (left: Kruschev banging table at UN with his shoe)

Soviet First Secretary Nikita Kruschev backed down, and a nuclear war was averted.

And now the fuse of paranoid Putin's nuclear war threat is burning fast towards WW3.   

There is now simply no way that he can extricate himself from what he has started.

• He cannot stop the "sham" referendums that he has set in motion.
• He cannot stop the panicked exodus of Russian men from Russia.
• He cannot stop the mounting demonstrations against his war now occuring all over Russia.
• He cannot erase his threat of 'nuclear' war once he declares the "sham" elections valid, and immediately incorporates Ukraine's Donbas, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions into the Russian Federation.
  

Unlike Soviet First Secretary Nikita Kruschev, Putin has no 'politburo' that can reign him in.

The Soviet Politburo was a bureau of the Central Committee that was tasked with making day-to-day political decisions. (cf Wikipedia)

As Patrick Jackson reports,

"The US is taking "seriously" Vladimir Putin's veiled threats to use nuclear weapons to defend areas in Ukraine, a top White House official told the BBC.

John Kirby said the US was not changing its "strategic deterrent posture", but that Mr Putin spoke irresponsibly." (BBC News: 23 September 2022) (my emphasis)

We can now only hope that something unforseen stays Putin's hand from pressing the nuclear button.

STOP PRESS!! 24 September 2022

BBC News reports that,

"The EU must not ignore Vladimir Putin's threats that he could use nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine, the bloc's foreign policy chief has said.

Josep Borrell (left) told the BBC's Lyse Doucet that Mr Putin's assertion he was not bluffing had to be taken seriously.

His remarks come as Russia begins a partial mobilisation and moves to annex four regions of Ukraine." (BBC News : 24 September 2022) (my emphasis)

 

 

We should all be reminded of the fact, as Jonathan Littell (right) points out, that,

"In August 1999, a then-unknown Vladimir Putin was named prime minister when his predecessor refused to condone a full reinvasion of Chechnya. Putin, however, was ready, and in return for their unconditional support he granted the military a free rein, allowing them to avenge their humiliating 1996 defeat in blood and fire." (The Guardian : 3 March 2022) (my emphasis)

The Putin of 1999 is the same Putin of 2022. 

And now, as President of the Russian Federation, he has his trigger finger hovering over the nuclear button as his war with Ukraine begins to collapse like a pack of cards.

(to be continued)