Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future - Strategic ...

The Russian Federation reserves the right to use
nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear or
other types of weapons of mass destruction against it
and (or) its allies, as well as in response to a large-scale
aggression involving the use of conventional weapons
in situations critical to the national security of the Russian
Federation. The Russian Federation will not use
nuclear weapons against states-members of the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that do
not possess nuclear weapons, except in case of an aggression
against the Russian Federation, the Armed
Forces of the Russian Federation or other troops, its
allies or against a state with which it has agreements in
the area of security, committed or supported by such
a state that does not possess nuclear weapons, jointly
or in the presence of allied obligations with a statepossessor
of nuclear weapons. 50
Besides the “RF Military Doctrine,” the Putin government
approved other doctrinal and strategy documents
that reserved a special place for the strategic
weapons in assuring Russian security, including the
Federal Law “On Defense,” 51 the “National Security
Doctrine,” 52 the “Foreign Policy Doctrine,” 53 as well as
policy statements by high government officials, e.g.,
annual “Presidential Addresses to the Federal Assembly,”
etc. While these documents did not identify the
“potential adversaries” of Russia by name, it was obvious
that the United States and NATO powers were
at the top of the list of the “threat factors” for Russia. 54
Bellicose statements on Russian readiness to use
nuclear weapons continued throughout Vladimir Putin’s
presidency. In February 2007 then-Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov told the Duma that, “As regards
the use of nuclear weapons in case of aggression, of
course [we will use them in this case]. What else were
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