The key document that reveals how the “nuclear button” is activated in Russia and what destructive power it has

“Everyone knows that a Third World War could only be nuclear, but I draw your attention to the fact that this is in the minds of Western politicians, not Russians”Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Thursday. But the comment only adds to the concern three weeks after the same minister attributed to the “hysteria” warmonger of the West the possibility of an invasion to Ukraine.

Lavrov’s statement raises the question of what is Russia’s nuclear arsenal, its destructive power and who is the one that could eventually decide to launch an attack.

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It is estimated that Russia is today the country with the largest number of atomic weapons, about 6000 nuclear warheads. A reference about the power of that arsenal is that the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Little Boy, was rated at 15 kilotons, and any of today’s warheads exceeds 1000 kilotons.

That force would be enough to cause total destruction within 18 kilometers of the blast site, severe destruction within 30 kilometers, severe damage within 50 kilometers, and general damage within 80 kilometers in all directions.

The Little Boy bomb caused devastation in Hiroshima. (Getty Images)

Faced with this enormous destructive power, until now the five great powers that possess these weapons and are in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), United States, Russia, China, Great Britain and Franceplus India, Pakistan and Israelthey only had them with a deterrent end to discourage any attack against their country. Until now, no nation had threatened to use it again, as the United States did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

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but the president Vladimir Putin for the first time he mentioned this Sunday that he had put his nuclear deterrent forces on alert.

Who can then activate the “nuclear button” in the Russian Federation?

In June 2020, the Kremlin approved a document that is more relevant today, called “Basic principles of the state policy of the Russian Federation on nuclear deterrence”. There it is established in what cases and in what way that option would be activated.

Putin and the other two bearers of the nuclear briefcase, his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov

The text maintains that “state policy on nuclear deterrence is defensive”so it would only work as a response to a threat from another country, but a disturbing paragraph clarifies that “in case of military conflict, this policy [la de utilización de armas nucleares] foresees the prevention of an escalation of military actions and their completion under conditions that are acceptable to the Russian Federation”. He also clarifies that it is not necessary for the enemy to have the possibility of a nuclear response. Just have “offensive weapons (ballistic and cruise missiles, hypersonic aerial vehicles, attack unmanned aerial vehicles), directed energy weapons, missile defense assets, early warning systems”.

As for who can squeeze the “Red button”, the decision to use nuclear weapons “is made by the president of the Russian Federation”. But in order to activate the encrypted codes of his nuclear briefcase or “cheguet” (in Russian), the head of state needs the other two briefcases that are in the hands of the defense minister and the joint chief of staff. They are the two who “directly plan and execute organizational and military measures in the field of nuclear deterrence”.

So in the Russian Federation, the decision to launch a nuclear attack is made jointly by the president and his military chiefs.

By Ruben Guillemi

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Source: Elcomercio