More Media Lies About Putin & What Putin Actually Said

It’s time to make sure that all responsible media around the world participate in the Schiller Institute emergency press conference, “The Danger of Nuclear War Is Real, and Must Be Stopped,” at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on June 12, featuring Scott Ritter, Col. Richard Black (ret.), Ray McGovern, and Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

In an extensive 22-minute exchange with moderator Sergey Karaganov at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on June 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly rejected the proposal by some in Russia that “the fear of nuclear weapons” has been seriously weakened and that “we need to be much tougher in going up the escalation ladder and be ready to use them.” In that exchange—which can be heard in the Kremlin site’s English simultaneous interpretation from 2:52:54 to 3:14:42, Putin said Russia’s written public nuclear doctrine states clearly the very limited “exceptional cases” in which Russia could use nuclear weapons, but that “I do not believe that such a case has come; there is no such need;” that “God forbid” it should come to such strikes; that he doesn’t think the United States would launch strategic nuclear arms, but if it does, Russia possesses a highly effective early-warning system to detect missiles, as does the United States, but that “Europe does not have a developed system; they are more or less defenseless in this sense;” and that “we don’t even need to think about this topic.

Turning to the entire audience, Putin stated emphatically: “Please, and I would also once again ask everyone, do not mention such things in vain”—which received a strong round of applause.

Veteran strategic analyst Karaganov, who is considered as something of a “hawk” in the West for his repeated proposal that Russia should announce the prospect of launching a tactical nuclear attack on Europe, then said to Putin: “I understand perfectly and support your hesitation, because it is a terrible choice, and one that should only be made as a last resort. But if they know you are not ready to make that choice, they will endlessly try to fight and bleed us.”

To which Putin responded forcefully: “My decisions, and those of my colleagues with whom I work in this area, are not linked to any hesitation; there is no hesitation and there can be none. All our decisions must be based on analysis—real, objective analysis of the situation…. We don’t need any atomic weapons for the final victory” in Ukraine.

Clear as a bell, right?

Yet here’s a sampling of coverage in the British and American press.

London’s Daily Telegraph headlined its June 8 article “Europe Defenseless and Unprepared for Nuclear War, Warns Putin,” which insisted “The Russian leader and other officials have repeatedly raised the threat of a nuclear attack since sending troops into Ukraine in 2022.”

BBC concurred, reporting that “ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has been engaged in nuclear saber-rattling,” and that it’s widely believed in the West that Putin is “bluffing.” c Newsweek, as is its wont, elaborated on the “Putin is bluffing” mantra, in an article quoting extensively from the ultra-hawkish Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank—whose objectivity and intentions can be judged by the fact that it reportedly receives its principal funding from U.S. defense contractors. The ISW argued that Putin’s remarks at SPIEF further confirmed that all of his red-lines are bluffs.

“Putin stated that he does not think such an ‘exceptional’ case has arisen so ‘there is no such need’ for Russia to use nuclear weapons,” the ISW stated. “Putin’s June 7 statement is a significant rhetorical reversal given that Putin and other Kremlin officials have previously threatened Russian nuclear weapon use should Western states allow Ukraine to strike into Russian territory with Western-provided weapons,” the ISW said. Given that such actions have not resulted in “a significant Russian reaction,” the ISW said that “many of Russia’s ‘red lines’ are most likely information operations designed to push the West to self-deter.”

The obvious conclusion they suggest: the West should stop “self-deterring,” and get on with it.

A far better approach will be presented at the upcoming June 12 Schiller Institute press conference at the National Press Club.