Putin’s discussion with Karaganov about the use of nuclear weapons is an obvious sign of the legitimization of the nuclear war scenario.
Of course, this is a game of Putin as a good and Karaganov as a bad one, but although Putin always stipulates that he really hopes that nothing like this will happen — in fact, they are talking about tactical nuclear weapons strikes on Europe as a very real prospect near future.
It is interesting, by the way, that Sergey Karaganov was for many years the deputy director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences (where he was my scientific supervisor for two years) and one could assume that he would have some kind of professional sympathy towards Europe — but nothing of the kind.
He compares European countries to hyenas, who need to be hit on the head with a stick, or even better, kill a couple — then the rest will run away. Against the backdrop of such militant anti-Westernism, Putin looks like just Superman the peacemaker — but he also casually mentions that, unlike the United States and Russia, Europe does not have early warning systems, which means they are almost defenseless against a nuclear missile strike.
And if we also take into account the announced change in Russia’s nuclear doctrine, the specter of a limited nuclear war in Europe is taking on increasingly clear forms.