Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Russian article.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has renewed his threat to use “all weapons” at Russia’s disposal against the West in the event of a conflict, the second such from Moscow in successive days after Moscow’s warning to NATO about Kaliningrad.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance was ready to defend its territory, although he said there was no impending threat.
Putin was speaking at an event Friday in the capital of Moscow, as he made references to the potential use of weapons of mass destruction.
"Can we be sure that these weapons will never be used? Well, of course not,” he said speaking at Valdai Discussion Club, as he quoted a 19th century literary principle from Russian playwright Anton Chekhov.
“We all know the well-known saying: if a gun hangs on the stage somewhere on the wall at the beginning of the performance, then it must eventually fire," he said.
Russia made a similar threat late last month when its foreign ministry sent a diplomatic letter to NATO countries warning them about the potential use of nuclear weapons should the alliance attempt to cut off the Kaliningrad region from Russia.
“This letter and the statement of the Foreign Ministry do not mention the use of nuclear weapons,” Putin said. “It says, as I have just formulated, about the use of all the forces and means at the disposal of our country. And we will decide how it will be."
VOA reached out to the White House for a comment, though had not received a response at the time of publication of this article.
Asked about the letter that Russia sent to NATO, Rutte declined to discuss the content of the letter, but he said NATO was a “defensive alliance.”
“Stop the nuclear threats, this is absolutely not called for, and not helpful, and particularly stop the war in Ukraine,” Rutte told Euronews on September 30.
Rutte said the alliance has “What it takes to defend every inch of allied territory and remain strong, ready and able to counter any threat.”
It’s the latest in a series of nuclear signals and warnings from Putin going back in 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. In 2022, a few days after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin also noted that Russia was putting its strategic forces to a "special alert" status.
"For some reason, the West believes that Russia will never use this. We have a nuclear doctrine – look at what is written there,” Putin said in June 2024.
“If someone's actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible for ourselves to use all the means at our disposal,” he said at the time. Some observers say Putin’s threat should be taken seriously.
“Russian threats should be taken seriously and strongly condemned as completely unacceptable. They reflect Moscow's frivolous and immature attitude toward the risks and dangers of using nuclear weapons,” Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a think tank, told VOA’s Russian Service.
“NATO does not appear to be threatening military action against the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, but even if such a threat existed, the reality is that any use of nuclear weapons, however limited they may be considered in a conflict with another nuclear-armed state or with a nuclear alliance, would inevitably lead to a nuclear retaliatory strike, further escalation and the start of a catastrophic global nuclear war,” Kimball said.
Writter and visiting fellow at the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, Keir Gile, argues that Russia is taking a calculated gamble.
“The risk is low for as long as the victim countries remain passive punchbags and do not impose meaningful costs or consequences on Russia in return,” he said.
“That in itself provides an incentive for Russia to continue probing and testing, and understand just how much it would take to provoke a response.”
Nuclear arsenal
The U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaty expired in February this year. The treaty obligated the U.S. and Russia to limit their nuclear warheads to 1,550 and restrict their deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles to 700. It also placed limits on Russian intercontinental nuclear weapons that could hit the U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time that the U.S. was seeking a trilateral arms control agreement with Russia and China, citing Beijing’s rapid increase of its nuclear weapons stockpile with support from Moscow.
According to the 2026 National Defense Strategy published earlier this year by the U.S. Department of War in January, Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and it “continues to modernize and diversify."
The assessment said Russia is "modernizing its nuclear arsenal against the backdrop of numerous failed tests of new systems."
The 2026 U.S. State Department report to the Senate said, “there are as yet no indications of a large-scale increase in the overall numbers of warheads assigned these roles.”
The report also noted that President Putin’s nuclear weapons rhetoric since Moscow invaded Ukraine and said it was “an apparent attempt to deter Western military intervention against Russia in Ukraine.”