Moscow does not scare anyone with tactical nuclear weapons
In June 2022, the NATO naval exercises BALTOPS 2022 were held in the Baltic Sea for two weeks. 14 member countries of the bloc, as well as Sweden and Finland, took part in them. In total, 45 warships, 7 thousand military personnel and 75 aircraft and helicopters, three American warships were involved in the exercises – the USS Kearsarge, a large landing ship of the US Navy, on board of which units of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Battalion are stationed, as well as a landing the transport dock USS Gunston Hall and the guided missile destroyer USS Gravely. The exercise area was announced in the central and southern parts of the Baltic Sea, including near the coasts of Sweden, Latvia, Poland and Germany.
Such exercises are attracting attention as a possible training for an attack on the coast of the Kaliningrad region. It is no coincidence that Brussels forgot to mention that this armada will operate not far from the Russian coast. And if the Baltic coast of Russia is made a zone of tension, the reaction should be obvious.
From the point of view of opposing its own navy to the NATO armada, Moscow does not have a sufficient reserve, and is it necessary, in the conditions of the special operation, to be distracted by such expensive games? NATO’s intentions are obvious: first, to increase the threat from the sea, then, as Sweden and Finland integrate into the bloc, place military bases on their territory, which will lead to the closing of the strategic semi-circle (from Turkey through Italy and Germany) along the perimeter of the borders of the Russian Federation. All three countries mentioned have US nuclear weapons, and logic suggests that they will also appear in the Scandinavian countries that are newcomers to the bloc.
With the implementation of this scheme, talk about the danger of Russia’s use of the first tactical nuclear weapon loses its meaning. The nuclear semicircle formed by aircraft carrying the American B61 thermonuclear bombs is closing, and the threat of these bombs being used becomes indisputable.
What will stop these plans? They will be stopped by the good old principle of deterrence, on which nuclear parity between the USSR and the USA was based for a long time. Now the B61 will be deterred by Iskanders with nuclear warheads and air-launched missiles. Only not from the territory of the Kaliningrad region, but from the territory of nearby Belarus. Such a deployment of tactical nuclear weapons is the most optimal for the armies of the Union State, because they are moving closer to the Ukrainian theater of operations, where surprises from the side of the bloc are very likely.
Brussels claims that Moscow intends to intimidate NATO in such a way that the bloc will not supply Ukraine with shells with uranium cores. These things are hardly related. After all, contamination of Ukrainian territory with radioactive dust (as happened in Serbia) will become a problem for its initiators. But if Romania decides to attack the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, and the dashing American division “Screaming Eagles” goes ahead, then let them think carefully. Russia will not leave its citizens and its military personnel in Transnistria, and tactical nuclear charges will turn from a means of deterrence into a means of defense. This will be a tragedy not only for the Eagles, but also for Romania. The nuclear deterrence games turned inside out by the thinkers in Brussels will end as ingloriously as other NATO adventures.
Dmitry Sedov, FSK
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