Putin on New US Nuclear Stance: Russia Would Use Nukes If Attacked

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The new US nuclear posture allows a nuclear strike in response to a conventional attack. President Putin said that if anyone attacked Russia with nuclear weapons, Russia wouldn’t hesitate to respond in kind. The warning came during a State of the Nation address delivered on Thursday, in which he presented a number of new advanced strategic weapon systems that he said would render all anti-missile capabilities that the USA currently has powerless. Putin also mentioned the new American nuclear posture, which relaxed some rules on when the USA is prepared to use nuclear weapons:

We’re greatly concerned by some parts of the new nuclear posture, which reduces the benchmark for the use of nuclear weapons. Whatever soothing words one may try to use behind closed doors, we can read what they wrote. It says that they can use these weapons in response to a conventional attack or even a cyber-threat. Our nuclear doctrine says that Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons only in response to a nuclear attack or an attack with other weapons of mass destruction against her or her allies or a conventional attack against us that threatens the very existence of the state. It’s my duty to state that we’ll treat any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, be it small-scale, medium-scale, or any other scale, as a nuclear attack on our country. Our response would be instantaneous and with all relevant consequences.

1 March 2018

RT

https://www.rt.com/news/420171-nukes-us-russia-attack/

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6 January 2018. Statista Infographic. Global Nuclear Arsenal on 17 February 2017

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Both the Trumpkin Munchkins and the Clintonista Stepford Wives are raising a holy stink about the DPRK’s nuclear capability. Earth to neoliberal scumtickets:

The DPRK doesn’t have a significant nuclear capability. It doesn’t even have a minor nuclear capability. It has produced material for warheads, but intel proves that they don’t have enough for more than 10-20 low-yield weapons. It hasn’t produced a survivable re-entry vehicle for a tactical missile, let alone a MRBM or ICBM.

That is, Trump’s histrionics are nothing more but him taking out his gazoo and claiming, “My dick is bigger than your dick is!” The Clintonista clucking on the issue amounts to the same juvenile thing.  By the way… do note that the USA isn’t numero uno on this chart… Russia is. Hmm… Russia DOES have the DPRK’s back. The truth is an interesting thing, isn’t it?

BMD

Peacemaker: How the Soviet Tsar Bomba Helped Prevent Nuclear War

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Fifty-five years ago, the USSR detonated a 50-megaton bomb over an uninhabited island north of the Arctic Circle. The most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever built by man, aptly called the Tsar Bomba, gave the USSR nuclear parity with the USA.

The Super Bomb was a Necessity

The “thaw” in Soviet-US relations resulting from, amongst other things, Nikita Khrushchyov’s visit to the USA in autumn 1959 ended on 1 May 1960, when the Soviets shot down a US U-2 spy plane flown by CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers in their airspace as it performed photographic aerial reconnaissance of the Baikonur cosmodrome and a number of Soviet military and nuclear facilities. Powers parachuted safely, the Soviets captured him, and he admitted the military nature of his mission. As a result, Khrushchyov cancelled the scheduled opening of an east-west summit in Paris. The incident prompted a marked deterioration of US-Soviet relations, especially after US-backed Cuban emigrants bungled an attempt to invade Cuba in April 1961. The Moscow-proposed moratorium on nuclear tests by the USSR, the USA, and the UK, in effect since 1958, left the USSR lagging far behind the USA in the size of its nuclear arsenal. By 1960, the Americans used the moratorium to bring the number of their nuclear and thermonuclear warheads to 18,600 from 7,500 in 1958. In July 1961, Khrushchyov decided that he had enough of the moratorium and decided to start work on super-powerful thermonuclear weapons to restore nuclear parity with the USA. He also announced the need to build a 100-megaton thermonuclear bomb as a means of forcing the Americans to wake up to reality.

The Tsar Bomba

A four-man development team of nuclear physicists… Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Smirnov, and Yuri Trutnev… had the responsibility to design and build a three-stage thermonuclear device in just 15 weeks. Officially designated the AN602 thermonuclear bomb, the Tsar Bomba used the common three-stage Teller-Ulam design. The primary fission reaction compressed a secondary mixed fission/fusion fuel layer, which in turn compressed a large tertiary thermonuclear payload, essentially stringing a pair of hydrogen fission reactions together to generate enough energy to activate fusion in a uranium payload.

Record-Breaking Blast

At 09.00 on 30 October 1961, a specially modified Tu-95 strategic bomber took off; it carried the Tsar Bomba and a Tu-16A flying laboratory accompanied it. They headed for a testing range on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. At 27 tonnes, the Tsar Bomba weighed nearly as much as the Tu-95 that carried it; it was so big that groundcrew had to cut off the bomb-bay doors to fit it in. At 11.30, the crew released the device from 10,500 metres, using a parachute to retard its fall so that the bomber and its companion craft had sufficient time… 188 seconds… to leave the area. The bomb went off at an altitude of 4,200 metres. The calculated power of the unprecedented explosion was 51.5 megatons. In reality, its power was between 57 and 58.6 megatons. The fireball from the explosion was 4.6 kilometres across; it was visible 1,000 kilometres away, despite dense clouds. The mushroom cloud rose up to almost 70 kilometres and had a diameter of 95 kilometres. For about an hour after the explosion, people observed radio signal distortions hundreds of kilometres from the epicentre due to ionisation of the atmosphere. The shockwave circled the planet three times. On Dikson Island, some 800 kilometres from the range, the shockwave shattered windows, bringing the sound of cannonade with it.

Aftermath

Even though the Tsar Bomba wasn’t an active service weapon, its creation confirmed the USSR’s ability to have as many megatons of nuclear might as it desired. With this realisation in mind, the USA stopped their nuclear buildup. On 5 August 1963, the USSR, the USA, and the UK signed a treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater. Thus, the test of the Tsar Bomba played a crucial role in achieving nuclear parity between the USSR and the USA. This prevented nuclear war.

30 October 2016

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/russia/201610301046887680-ussr-bomb-history/

Nagasaki Remembers 1945 American A-Bomb Attack Victims

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On Sunday, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue as he read out the Declaration of Peace at a remembrance ceremony for the victims of the American A-bomb attack of Nagasaki in 1945 called on US President Barrack Obama and the leaders of other nuclear powers to visit American A-bomb attack sites in Japan. “I call on the US President and the leaders of other countries to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see personally what happened there 70 years ago. It’s necessary to exert every effort to free the world from nuclear weapons. We have the strength to safeguard peace without nuclear weapons and war”. Taue also voiced concern over a new Japanese law expanding the scope of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces, “After the war, Japan embarked on a peaceful path, but today more and more people have the impression that the ideology of peace fixed in the Japanese constitution is now wobbly”.

A minute of silence was held in Nagasaki at 11.02 local time (18.02 PDT. 21.02 EDT. 02.02 9 August BST. 05.02 MSK. 22.02 AEST), exactly the time when a USAAF B-29 strategic bomber dropped the “Fat Man” atomic bomb on the city on 9 August 1945. Prior to that, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and public figures laid wreaths of white and yellow crown daisies at the memorial in the Peace Park located in the city centre. Prior to the commemorations, a Japanese choir sang a song urging the world not to repeat the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Prime Minister Abe said in a statement circulated by his office prior to the ceremony, “I visited Hiroshima on 6 August, where I swore that we’d firmly espouse the three non-nuclear principles, with an aim to avert the recurrence of the horrors of nuclear weapons use. We’ll continue to lead the world community to a nuclear-free world”.

Nagasaki became the second Japanese city after Hiroshima to be subject to American A-bomb attack in August 1945. For years, the death toll continued in Nagasaki. The number of victims grew from year to year. The list expands constantly as more people die of atomic disease. Japan updates the figures annually on 9 August. In 2014, the number of A-bombing victims reached 165,409. The USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of World War II; the official excuse is that it sped up Japan’s capitulation. Those attacks are the only examples of combat use of nuclear weapons in history. The USA still refuses to admit its moral responsibility for its atomic bombings of the two Japanese cities; it keeps justifying them by citing military necessity.

Earlier this week, RF Gosduma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin criticised the USA for its attempts to minimise the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He told a round table meeting devoted to the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), “I have no doubt that the barbarity and inappropriateness of what they did is obvious to American sources, but instead of having a right understanding of history, they want to bury it in oblivion. Interests of peace and security weren’t the factors behind the American behaviour. It was a matter of national prestige. The incumbent US authorities aren’t trying to conceal the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which is impossible, but they’re trying to hide the hypocrisy and cynicism of the leaders who ruled the USA at that time. Their behaviour casts a shadow over modern American policy, which has certainly inherited an ideology of exclusiveness, immunity from error, and arrogance of power. No international war tribunal has examined the A-bombings of Japan so far. However, crimes against humanity have no statute of limitation. In my view, one thing is certain, the actions chosen by the USA back in 1945 didn’t rest on considerations of humanity nor did any military need dictate it. Japanese militarists committed many atrocities against civilians in China, Korea, and throughout Asia during World War II. The verdicts passed by the Tokyo and Khabarovsk tribunals gave a civilised reply to their conduct, but the civilian victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren’t responsible for that and had nothing to do with those crimes”.

http://tass.ru/en/world/813324

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On Sunday, in Japan, commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the American A-bomb attack of the Japanese port city of Nagasaki will take place in Japan. A memorial ceremony will start at the Peace Park in Nagasaki at 11.02 local time (18.02 PDT. 21.02 EDT. 02.02 9 August BST. 05.02 MSK. 22.02 AEST) exactly the time when a USAAF B-29 strategic bomber dropped the “Fat Man” atomic bomb on the city on 9 August 1945. All Japan will observe a minute of silence. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue will read out a Declaration of Peace, calling for total nuclear disarmament and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will address the people of Nagasaki. By tradition, people will release a flock of white doves… symbols of peace… into the sky over the city. The Nagasaki city administration said representatives of more than 80 countries would attend the memorial events this year. Rose Gottemoeller, US Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, as well as US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy will represent the United States. Britain and France also sent delegations to Nagasaki. Russian embassy employees will represent Russia. An Iranian delegation is attending the commemorations for the first time. Nagasaki became the second Japanese city after Hiroshima subjected to American A-bomb attack in August 1945.

http://tass.ru/en/world/813317

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On this day 70 years ago, on 9 August 1945, an A-bomb attack targeted the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The city of Nagasaki is located in western Kyushu, and is the capital of Nagasaki Prefecture. It started as a local fishermen’s town that eventually grew into a sprawling city. During the self-imposed isolation of Japan, Nagasaki was the only port to handle limited trade with the Netherlands and China. After World War II broke out, Nagasaki retained its status as a major seaport and became a very important military installation with many production facilities, primarily shipyards, weapons factories, and steel-smelting plants.

Nagasaki is located in two valleys through which two rivers flow. A mountain range divides the residential and industrial districts, which resulted in the city’s chaotic development. Its buildings were located on an area of less than four square miles at a time when the entire city covered 35 square miles. For many years, Nagasaki expanded without an urban development plan. That’s why residential and factory buildings were located as close as possible to each other throughout the entire industrial valley. The Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, the Mitsubishi Electric Shipyards, and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works were located on the south and north sides of the same street. The city’s main business and residential districts were in a small valley near the edge of the harbour. Nagasaki had never suffered a large-scale airstrike prior to the atomic bombing. On 1 August 1945, bombers dropped several high explosive bombs on the city. Some of them hit the shipyard and docks in the city’s southwestern district. Several more bombs damaged the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, the local medical school and hospital. Although the air raid caused insignificant damage, it worried many people in the city, so, the authorities evacuated some of them, mostly students, to rural areas. The overall population decreased somewhat prior to the dropping of the atomic bomb.

The Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki had a plutonium core (using plutonium-239), weighed 4.5 tonnes, with an explosive yield of 20 kilotons. The USA had planned to drop the bomb on 11 August, but it moved the deadline up to 9 August. At 11.02 local time on 9 August, the crew of the bomber Bock’s Car dropped the Fat Man bomb on Nagasaki. The bomb exploded high above the city’s industrial valley, almost halfway between the two main targets… the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works to the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works to the north. The blast killed over 73,000 people, and 35,000 more died later from radiation disease and from wounds. Over 50 percent of atomic-blast victims suffered from burns, and the blast wave affected up to 30 percent. An additional 20 percent had radiation exposure. Fires destroyed most of the residential buildings. The atomic explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of about 43 square miles, including 8.5 square miles of water surface and 9.8 square miles covered by buildings. The remaining areas were sparsely populated; this helped avoid even greater casualties. The second nuclear strike in history proved just as devastating as the first one. An official Japanese report assessing the results of the attack in Nagasaki described the city as a cemetery where no gravestone remained intact.

Today, Ground Zero is in a prosperous Nagasaki suburb. Hypocentre at the Nagasaki Peace Park is the only reminder of the tragedy. A black stone column in the centre of the park marks the location above which the bomb detonated. The central section of the Nagasaki Peace Park features a colossal figure of a sitting half-naked man called the Peace Statue. His right hand points to the sky, as if showing the falling bomb, and the left hand extends horizontally, symbolising peace and forgiveness. The Atomic Bomb Museum has been in the Peace Park’s south sector since 1996. The museum’s exhibits make a poignant impression on visitors. A clock with its hands frozen at 11.02, the exact time of the 9 August 1945 atomic blast, has become a symbol of Nagasaki.

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150809/1025547615.html

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Earlier in the day on Sunday, Nagasaki held a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the city by the USA. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue called on the heads of the world nuclear powers, including US President Barack Obama, to come to Nagasaki and Hiroshima and to see at first-hand the results of the 1945 US nuclear bombing. He said during the memorial ceremony, “I appeal from Nagasaki; I address President Obama and heads of states, including heads of the nuclear powers, and all the people of the world… please, come to Nagasaki and Hiroshima and see for yourself exactly what happened under those mushroom clouds 70 years ago”. In 1945, the USA dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on 6 and 9 August respectively. The bombing in Hiroshima killed about 140,000, and the raid on Nagasaki claimed the lives of some 70,000. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare in history. The bombings caused Japan to surrender on 15 August 1945, ending World War II. On 6 August, Hiroshima held a Peace Memorial Ceremony. US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, as well as Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Rose Gottemoeller attended the commemorative event, but US President Barack Obama wasn’t present. Earlier this week, White House said Obama could potentially participate in a ceremony in Hiroshima.

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150809/1025546100.html

9 August 2015

TASS

Sputnik International