Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered Russia’s threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, indicating an escalation in tensions President-elect Donald Trump promised to alleviate.
Putin’s decree on Tuesday revised Russia’s nuclear doctrine, now stating that Russia could use nuclear arms if attacked by a nation that is backed by a nuclear power, according to The New York Times. Any attack from Ukraine, would be seen as a “joint attack” with its allies, according to the doctrine.
Putin first announced plans to change this policy during an address in September, but its installation seems to be in response to President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to fire American long-range missiles 190 miles into Russian territory. Biden’s decision came after North Korean troops were discovered fighting in Russia’s Western Kursk region last week.
On the campaign trail, Trump claimed that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” of being elected president—promising a deal that was far more favorable to his supposed ally Putin. Two weeks after Trump’s election victory, it seems that Russia is taking the news as permission to ramp up its assault against Ukraine, and its Western allies like NATO.
Within days of Trump winning the presidential election, Putin sent tens of thousands of soldiers to the Ukrainian war front after Trump told him not to escalate the situation.
During Trump’s debate against Biden in June, the now president-elect said, “If we had a real president, a president that knew—that was respected by Putin … he would have never invaded Ukraine.”