Imagine this scenario. Ruthless cyber attack shuts down the electrical networks of Russia. The Internet does not work. In the houses dark and cold. Hospitals run on generators, whereas the number of accidents and crimes increases dramatically amid the chaos. Nuclear power plants are destroyed, infecting the radiation of the vast territory of the country.
Russian intelligence agents insist that the attack was carried out by American agents. Fearing that an electronic attack may be a prelude to a broader attack — and not being able to respond with conventional weapons, the Russian President strikes back with one cruise missile “Burevestnik” (Petrel) with a nuclear warhead and nuclear propulsion system.
The explosion completely obliterates from the face of the Earth the American military air base on the island of GUAM, killed tens of thousands of people. At the moment when the finger of the American President hanging over his own red button and millions of people dreaded the end of the world, the Russian leader is calling in the UN and reports what everyone already guessed. “I have used a nuclear bomb against Americans,” he says.
This is quite a silly fantasy is, however, some key installation from real life that are contained in the document entitled “On fundamentals of state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of nuclear deterrence.”
For the first time Moscow has published a new edition of the policy document. Dmitry Stefanovich (Dmitry Stefanovich) from the Institute of world economy and international relations, Primakov behalf of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation kindly translated the document and pointed to him the strangest and most frightening sections.
The most concerns that the Russian government now considers the justification for applying the first nuclear strike.
“Nuclear bombs exist only for deterrence Stefanovic wrote on his Twitter page, where he also published his version of the summary of this Russian document. — Its use is undesirable, a last resort, and (Russia) is making every effort to lower the nuclear threat and to prevent intergovernmental conflicts that can lead to military and nuclear phases”.
However, among the official justifications for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons is the use of foreign enemy own nuclear warheads or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia and/or its allies, and also in the case of attacks on “critical civilian and military infrastructure,” or in the case of direct interference in their work.
This document does not specify from whom can come of this kind of attack, but this list of “included, in fact, cyber attacks,” said Stefanovich on his Twitter page. Private policies of the American President Donald trump, which was submitted to the presidential administration in the beginning of 2018, also allows the application of nuclear retaliation in case of attacks on the civilian infrastructure.
The strangest thing about the new nuclear policy of Moscow are contained in the procedures regarding the responsibility of the Russian President after a nuclear strike. “The President… may, if necessary, to inform the military and political leadership of other States and (or) international organizations of the readiness of the Russian Federation to use nuclear weapons or of the decision on the use of nuclear weapons, and the fact of its application”.
As if the last of these options will not be evident after the mushroom cloud rise up over foreign territory.
This is a “funny position,” — said Stefanovic on Twitter.
