Retaliatory nuclear strike.
Retaliatory…
So, they rehearsed their response to getting nuked first.
Well, since no one plans to nuke them…
Retaliatory can mean whatever Putin wants it to mean. It can mean returning the annexed regions to Ukraine.
comes as Moscow is locked in what it casts as an existential standoff with the West over Ukraine.
those dipshits have done this to themselves.
They also aren’t locked into it. They can leave Ukraine at any given day.
Also Putin can turn himself in anytime.
Hey Putin I hear the weather in The Hague is nice this time of year you can visit anytime.
I wonder if Russians would be dissapointed to learn that here in the West, few people think about them at all. Not necessarily a good thing, Ukraine needs our continued support, but still. Russia’s basically less newsworthy than a d-list celebrity’s latest affair.
They know, they are counting on it. The news cycle moves on, people forget and then things like elections happen. Then policies change and support for Ukraine fades away. As soon as that happens, they get to commit genocide and claim the country for themselves.
At the same time China is taking notes, so they can figure out how long you need to fight a war and get away with it. They have a couple of countries they have their eye on at the moment.
deleted by creator
Is this a shocking headline for people who weren’t alive when the Cold War was still going on? Because when I was a kid Russia making plans for nuclear retaliation was just a typical weekday.
deleted by creator
… just like they do every October.
Yeah, but if you said this was a regurally scheduled drill, the acticle wouldn’t seem as interesting!
The US does this every year too, it is critical to the concept of mutually assured destruction. Both sides have to continually demonstrate the ability to annihilate the other in order to deter each other from actually launching a strike.
With the level of corruption they have in the reqular army, I’m pretty sure their fissile material is long past it’s prime and is now crumbly garbage.
Because why wouldn’t you steal maintenance funds from a weapon that will never be used and if it’s used nothing really matters anymore.
This is a case where you opponent cannot afford to be pretty sure
You can have 85% malfunctional and 10% intercepted the ones working are enough to be a problem
And not just fissile materials, but things like fuel, and machinery needed to run the rocket itself (high speed pumps full of precision parts, electronics, inertial guidance systems) along with the launch facility itself…
Well, since nobody is hiding in bunkers waiting for the fallout to dissipate and radiation levels to drop far enough that quick surface travel is survivable, I’m gonna call bullshit.
They may have done a thought exercise like how sometimes you might get super bored and go “what if that old man goes crazy and pulls out a sword” and plan out a fight scene.
There is no “we did a test of our nuclear strike response” because no matter what that plan is, it will not work. No battle plan survives contact with the enemy, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Your nuclear response plans mean fuckall when 80% of the people involved in your test will be dead in under 30 minutes. What is the estimate now? Like 12-20 minutes of warning?
Does anyone believe them tho? They have a continuous history of being dishonest.
They can’t even participate in the Olympics without trying to cheat/lie.
They better!
Deterrence doesn’t work if your adversary doesn’t know how launch in time.
Well, Russia is a dead empire, a failed state anyway. There would be very little benefit for the US in nuking them at this point.
The real deterrence for USA is probably China – if not already, then at least very soon.
There is no benefit for anyone nuking anyone. Nukes are a negative sum game. Use them and everybody loses.
As long as they maintain thousands of mated warheads and the related delivery systems, deterrence is relevant.
The fact that they are fucking themselves up in other ways makes it more relevant, not less.
failed state anyway
Sir, i don’t think you understand what a failed state is.
Wait, what year is this? WHAT YEAR
I rehearsed a world with a democratic Russia.
Then I sobered up and said fuck Putin.
