A senior member of a Russian think tank whose ideas sometimes become state policy suggested that Moscow consider a "demonstration" nuclear explosion to intimidate the West into banning Ukraine from using Western weapons against targets in Russia.
The proposal by Dmitry Suslov, a member of the Moscow-based Foreign and Defense Policy Council, was published a day after President Vladimir Putin warned the West that NATO members in Europe were playing with fire by proposing to allow Kiev to used Western weapons to strike deep into Russian territory and said it would trigger a global conflict.
Ukraine's leadership says it needs to be able to strike Russian forces and military targets inside Russia with long-range Western missiles in order to defend against and thwart air and missile strikes and drone attacks. This view has gained some support among some Western countries, but so far does not have the support of Washington.
Russia, which has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, has warned that it would view such a step as a serious escalation that would draw NATO and relevant countries into direct conflict with Moscow, raising the risk of nuclear war.
p>Putin has heaped praise on the Foreign and Defense Policy Council think tank, and he says authorities sometimes adopt his policy ideas.
Suslov said Russia must act to dissuade the West from crossing a red line. "In order to confirm the seriousness of Russia's intentions and to convince our adversaries that Moscow is ready to escalate, it is worth considering a demonstrative (that is, not a combat) nuclear explosion,", he wrote in the business magazine "Profil".< /p>
"Let's hope that the political and psychological effect of the nuclear cloud, which will be broadcast live on every television in the world, will remind Western politicians of the only thing that has prevented war between the great powers since 1945 and which they have generally lost – the fear of nuclear war".
Suslov is the latest Russian security expert and lawmaker to say Moscow should test a nuclear bomb as a deterrent amid the war in Ukraine, fueling concerns among Western security experts that Russia may be closing in ever closer to such a trial.
Such a move, if it happened, could usher in a new era of nuclear testing by major powers.
There is currently no comment from the Kremlin on Suslov's proposal, according to which Russia's nuclear policy remains unchanged. At the same time, however, earlier this month the Kremlin expressed displeasure with increasingly aggressive Western rhetoric about arming Kiev by ordering military exercises with tactical nuclear weapons.
NUCLEAR TEST?
Suslov suggested that Russia also hold nuclear drills, warn any country whose weapons are being used by Kiev for attacks in Russia that Moscow reserves the right to strike those countries' targets around the world, and also warn , that it could use nuclear weapons if that country then retaliated with conventional weapons.
In November, Putin signed into law Russia withdrawing from an international nuclear test ban treaty, a move he said was intended to put Russia on the same footing as the US, which has signed but has never ratified the treaty.
At the time, Russian diplomats said that Russia, which has not tested since the collapse of the Soviet Union, would not resume nuclear tests unless Washington did.
The Soviet Union last tested in 1990, and the US – in 1992. Only North Korea has conducted a nuclear explosion test this century.
Russia this month warned Britain that it could strike British military sites and equipment, both in Ukraine and elsewhere, if Ukraine uses British weapons with London's blessing to strike Russian territory.
She did so after British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Kiev had the right to use British-supplied weapons to strike targets in Russia.
Translation from English: Vladimir Arangelov, BTA