Sergei Karaganov, a Russian political scientist known as ‘Professor Doomsday’, warned that Putin could engage in ‘a series of preemptive strikes’ with nuclear weapons
A leading Russian political voice has threatened the UK with massive nuclear strikes.
Sergei Karaganov, who heads the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, warned Moscow was ready to strike out to frighten and destroy “evil” Western states.
Karaganov, known as Professor Doomsday, blamed “reckless” and “feeble-minded” leaders in Britain and across Europe for driving the world towards a full-scale war. In a terrifying threat to the UK and Western countries, Putin’s pal said Russia needed to boost its nuclear arsenal and be ready to use it in “preemptive strikes” to “destroy” European capitals.
“Our responsibility to our own country, our people, and the entire world is to stop this slide [towards world war],” said Karaganov. “It can be stopped in one way….by increasing the emphasis on nuclear deterrence. Technically, this is doable.”
But he threatened that “in a worst-case scenario” Russia would stage “a series of preemptive strikes against the main source of evil now”. He added: “These are certain European capitals. If they retaliate, it will be a fairly massive nuclear strike [from Russia.”
The Putin sage declared: “We must understand that we are dealing [in the West] with a decidedly reckless, increasingly feeble-minded, albeit sometimes cunning, and amoral elite. They must, first of all, be seriously frightened, and if not, then destroyed.”
Karaganov boasted of having a “loud voice” in Putin’s Russia before making the twisted claim that it was the West which wanted to obliterate his country. He told Russians they needed “a real mobilisation of society to prevent a global thermonuclear war that would destroy a significant part of our country”.
He said: “You can imagine. And perhaps [it would destroy] all of humanity, or at least human civilisation for several hundred years. Because a fragment of humanity will survive. But the civilisation that humanity has accumulated will be destroyed. This cannot be allowed.”
His chilling words came as leaders gather at the Munich Security Conference today with a main focus on efforts to find peace in Ukraine as the war there enters its fifth year. Overnight Russia launched strikes on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, with one person killed and six wounded in the heavy drone attacks.
Explosions ripped across the city in the onslaught, while disruptions to power, heating and water supplies were reported. A man was killed in 559 separate Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia region which included the targeting of homes of ordinary Ukrainians.
Meanwhile in the Russian city of Volgograd three people including a child were injured after the downing of a Ukrainian drone, with debris hitting a residential building.
