Putin bluffing over nuclear threat, says Yeltsin minister

VLADIMIR PUTIN is bluffing with his threats to use nuclear weapons, Boris Yeltsin’s former foreign minister claimed yesterday.

“The West should not agree to any unilateral concessions or limit its support of Ukraine too much for the fear of nuclear war,” said Andrei Kozyrev.

“In my opinion, he is rational. Given that he is rational, I strongly believe he will not intentionally use nuclear weapons against the West.”

As Russia’s first foreign minister after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Mr Kozyrev helped forged a policy of cooperation with the West. An advocate of nuclear non-proliferation during his time in office, he now lives in the US.

“Most people, particularly in the West, view Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine as utterly irrational. I disagree.

It’s horrific, but not irrational,” he said. “To understand why the invasion was rational for Putin, we have to step into his shoes.” The Russian leader, Mr Kozyrev argued, believes Ukraine “is not a real nation and, at best should be a satellite state”.

He also seriously overestimated the strength of his own military. “The Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernise its military. Much of that budget was stolen … But as a military adviser you cannot report that to the president. So they reported lies to him instead,” he wrote on Twitter.

On top of that, Russia misjudged the West, Mr Kozyrev argued. “The Russian elite believed its own propaganda that President Biden is mentally inept. They also thought the EU was weak … And then the US botched its withdrawal from Afghanistan, solidifying this narrative.”