In a bare-faced outburst this morning on the Today show, a former Russian MP and Putin aide claimed that British towns may be targeted by Putin’s nukes.
After barely exchanging pleasantries with Justin Webb, presenter of BBC Radio 4, Sergei Markov began threatening to start a nuclear war.
For some people, this morning is not nice. For your British listeners, Vladimir Putin informed you that he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons against Western nations, including Great Britain. There has been a partial mobilisation in Russia.
You will be targeted in your cities.
Markov, a member of Putin’s United Russia party who was elected to the Russian State Duma in 2007, is now a professor of international relations at a university in Moscow and has a history of promoting Putin’s views in Western media.
“People in London should grasp the danger [of nuclear weapons] if Great Britain will continue to be aggressive towards Russia… if Prime Minister of Great Britain Liz Truss still has a plot to destroy Russia,” he stated.
Markov’s irrational remarks came just after the Russian president issued his most vehement nuclear threat to the West and pledged partial mobilisation to support his sputtering war in Ukraine.
Markov immediately began criticising the West’s role in the Russia-Ukraine war and said that the West was employing Ukrainian troops as “slaves” to weaken the Russian army.
There is no justification for using tactical nuclear weapons against Ukrainians, he said, adding that it was quite evident that Russia had no war against Ukraine.
But Western nations are occupying Ukraine, and they are employing Ukrainian troops as slaves to fight the Russian army. Vladimir Putin’s fundamental concept was this.
Before gently inquiring if the former Putin assistant and the Russian people felt there might be a victor in a nuclear war, the bemused presenter Justin Webb let Markov come to a conclusion.
Everyone in the world is now contemplating nuclear war, which might be brought on by the erratic behaviour of US President Joe Biden and British Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and [Liz] Truss, Markov shot back.
Putin made it plain to Western countries during his address this morning that should the West continue to “threaten Russia’s territorial integrity,” he was prepared to use nuclear weapons. He also announced the partial mobilisation of Russian military reservists to fight in Ukraine.
The head of the Kremlin said, “Our nation also possesses a variety of defence capabilities, some of which are more sophisticated than those of NATO countries.”
“We will use all available measures to protect Russia and our people when the territorial integrity of our nation is challenged; this is not a bluff.”
“Russian people may be certain that we will use every tool at our disposal to protect the territorial integrity of our country, our independence, and our freedom.
“Those who are seeking to use nuclear weapons as a kind of blackmail should be aware that the winds may be blowing in their way.”
‘About the prospect of employing weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, against Russia,’ the belligerent Russian leader said he was reacting to warnings from anonymous high-ranking NATO officials.