president Vladimir Putin said on Friday that he believed there was no threat to Russia's sovereignty that would warrant the use of nuclear weapons, but he issued another warning Moscow Weapons could be sent to some country or others to attack Western targets.
Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that using nuclear weapon That would only be possible in “exceptional circumstances” and he did not believe “such circumstances had ever occurred”.
But he reiterated a warning from days ago that Moscow “reserves the right” to supply weapons to Western adversaries in response to some NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use the weapons to attack targets inside Russia.
“If they supply (weapons) to the war zone and call for the use of these weapons against our territory, why don't we have the right to do so?” Putin asked.
Putin added: “But I am not ready to say that we will do this tomorrow,” suggesting that this could affect global stability.
He did not specify where the weapons might be destined for.
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The United States and Germany recently authorized Kiev to use long-range weapons they provided to Kiev to strike some targets on Russian territory.
Ukraine has used U.S. weapons to attack inside Russia under newly approved guidelines by President Joe Biden that allow them to be used for limited purposes in defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, a Western official and a U.S. senator said on Wednesday. The official was not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive issue and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Putin made the comments during a question-and-answer session with a pro-Kremlin moderator at the forum, which Russia has used for decades as a platform to promote national development and attract investors.
Earlier in his speech, he said that despite severe sanctions from the international community, the Russian economy is still growing, and that Moscow's economic ties with countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia are becoming increasingly close.
Putin said Russia “remains one of the main players in world trade” despite sweeping sanctions over its deployment of troops to Ukraine that have cut off much of its trade with Western Europe, the United States and its allies.
The main driver of Russia's economic growth is the war in Ukraine – for the Kremlin, Ukraine's economy is as important as its politics.
Russians have found that some imports have disappeared, and most international brands have either disappeared or been reborn as Russian equivalents. But for most people, economic conditions have not changed much, and the economy has been boosted by huge government spending on military equipment and huge payouts to volunteer soldiers.
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