Foreign
Putin Tells West ‘go To Hell’ In The Wake Of Nuclear Weapons Transfer To Belarus
Vladimir Putin tells West to ‘go to hell’ as despot confirms that nuclear weapons have been moved to Belarus as a precaution for ‘anyone thinking of inflicting a strategic defeat’ on Russia
President Putin told the West to ‘go to hell’ on nuclear arms reduction as he confirmed he has moved nuclear weapons into Belarus, claiming it is a precautionary measure for ‘anyone thinking of inflicting a strategic defeat’ on Russia.
Speaking at Russia’s flagship economic forum in St Petersburg, Putin told those gathered that the first warheads had arrived in the country, but that this was only ‘the first part’ of the planned delivery.
warheads would be complete by the end of the year – but added he saw no reason to deploy nuclear weapons imminently.
The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons is Moscow’s first move of such bombs – which could potentially be used on the battlefield – outside Russian borders since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Putin claimed on Friday the move was intended as a warning to the West about arming and supporting Ukraine.
‘It is precisely as an element of deterrence so that all those who are thinking about inflicting a strategic defeat on us are not oblivious to this circumstance,’ said Putin, using a diplomatic term for a defeat so severe that Russian power would be diminished on the world stage for decades.
But Russia had no need to resort to nuclear weapons for now, said Putin, signalling no change in Moscow’s nuclear posture which only envisages such a move if the existence of the Russian state is threatened.
‘Nuclear weapons have been made to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state, but we…have no such need (to use them),’ Putin said.
But he said talks with the West to reduce Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal, the world’s largest, were a non-starter.
Earlier Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Putin, boasted some of the weapons are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
‘We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,’ Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency’s Telegram channel.
‘The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki,’ he said, speaking on a road in a forest clearing with military vehicles parked nearby and some kind of military storage facility visible in the background.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia, which will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, would start deploying them in Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made ready.
The despot yesterday threatened that the war in Ukraine could turn nuclear and warned ‘there will be no winners, including America’ in a Third World War.
German authorities have arrested three teenagers aged 15 and 16 on suspicion of plotting a deadly Islamist terrorist attack in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, prosecutors said on Friday.
The state’s Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism (ZenTer NRW) sought an arrest warrant for the teenagers over the Easter holiday.
They were suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in accordance with the aims and ideology of (extremist militia organisation) Islamic State.
The detained suspects are a 15-year-old girl from Dusseldorf, a 16-year-old girl from the Märkischer Kreis district and a 15-year-old boy from the Soest district, located about 100 kilometres to the east of Dusseldorf.
A fourth suspect has reportedly been identified in the south-western German state of Baden-Württemberg, and the local court there has issued an arrest warrant.
According to the investigators, the teenagers are accused of having agreed to commit murder and manslaughter.
This is in conjunction with the preparation of a serious act of violence endangering the state.
The presumption of innocence applied in all stages of the proceedings.
Security sources told newsmen that the young people had formed a chat group, but had not drawn up a concrete attack plan for a particular time and place.
However, sources said the cities of Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Cologne were discussed as targets, and attacks with knives and Molotov cocktails on people in churches or police officers in police stations had been considered.
The sources said authorities had also conducted searches as part of the investigation.
A machete and a dagger were seized in Dusseldorf, but no evidence of the construction of incendiary devices was discovered.
Sources said the father of the Dusseldorf suspect had already attracted attention from authorities in the past because he had allegedly collected donations for the Islamic State.
The investigators declined to reveal how the suspected terrorists were tracked down, but said that foreign intelligence agencies “did not play a role.”
Russia on Monday officially recognised Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the presidential elections in March, a vote that he is all but certain to win.
The 71-year-old has led Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential ballots and briefly serving as prime minister in a system where opposition has become virtually non-existent.
The Central Election Commission said it had registered Putin, who nominated himself, as well as right-wing firebrand and Putin-loyalist Leonid Slutsky as candidates for the vote.
The election will be held over a three-day period from March 15 to 17, a move that Kremlin critics have argued makes guaranteeing transparency more difficult.
Following a controversial constitutional reform in 2020, Putin could stay in power until at least 2036.
Rights groups say that previous elections have been marred by irregularities and that independent observers are likely to be barred from monitoring the vote.
While Putin is not expected to face any real competition, liberal challenger Boris Nadezhdin has passed the threshold of signatures to be registered as a candidate.
However, it is still unclear if he will be allowed to run, and the Kremlin has said it does not consider him to be a serious rival.
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