Russia feels justified in premptive nuke option

Dan 21 Jan, 2008 at 4:33pm ET Article published in Tech

“We are not going to attack anyone, but we believe all our partners in the international community should understand clearly and have no doubts that, in order to protect its and its allies’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russia will use its armed forces, including nuclear weapons, and it can do it preemptively,” Baluyevsky said at a scientific conference in Moscow.

via Interfax

Comments

21 Jan 2008 ~ 11:28pm Your-Amish-Daddy Bring it on. I'm dying to see what a MOAB does to Moscow.
22 Jan 2008 ~ 7:10pm RWB

Your Amish Daddy wrote:

Bring it on. I'm dying to see what a MOAB does to Moscow.

I really hope you don't live close to me if that's the case. The Tsar bomb which was detonated long ago had a 30 mile diameter fire ball and it was only half the bomb they were actually testing, much less the extra damage from sheer destructive force on going so God knows how far away you'd have to be to have "survived" a bomb like that. If it hit downtown Houston I'd be vaporized and I don't even live in Houston. I'd bet your house would still be totaled if you lived in Galveston in this case. The Tsar bomb is largest bomb detonated, it was estimated to yield 57 Megatons and the bomb itself was a testbed for 100 Megatons, it could be seen 600+ miles away. I'd bet it could be seen farther if not for the curvature of the Earth.

So take that knowledge and put it forward to today. The US nuclear program is geared more accurate targeting so not much yield is in play IIRC. But I have no idea how the Russians play this crazy game of Roulette.
22 Jan 2008 ~ 7:29pm Thelemech It is just like the "good" old days.
22 Jan 2008 ~ 7:41pm Your-Amish-Daddy What, am I supposed to live in fear of the Russians when they're our ALLY NOW? I'm not worried about a 100MT nuke, and I bet the government isn't either. I mean sure this isn't something one just turns a blind eye to, but what, they've got maybe 10 of those 100MT's done if any? The US still has 3500+ 10-25MT nukes. If they do something stupid, NORAD is going to bomb moscow back into the stone age, and then throw it into a microwave. I'm still hearing inklings of an under-development Neutrino charge. I'm not gonna swear by that, but I'm pretty sure if it is; By now we're almost done with it.

Scared of Russia? Not on your life, Bub. So what if they've got first strike capability with a 57MT bomb right this very minute. Let them make the stupid mistake of hitting Texas with it; as in your little scale scenario. That would be their FIRST AND LAST mistake. And before this gets too in-depth, I'm done.
22 Jan 2008 ~ 7:42pm RWB Well back then in the "good" old days as I understand it Russia was bluffing most of their abilities. They didn't have many viable options for ICBM's, so we were in reality... "relatively safe"? Not to mention the propaganda machines on both ends wanting everyone to be afraid so you could give the governments more leeway for the things they did, covered up, etc...
22 Jan 2008 ~ 7:44pm RWB

Your Amish Daddy wrote:

What, am I supposed to live in fear of the Russians when they're our ALLY NOW? I'm not worried about a 100MT nuke, and I bet the government isn't either. I mean sure this isn't something one just turns a blind eye to, but what, they've got maybe 10 of those 100MT's done if any? The US still has 3500+ 10-25MT nukes. If they do something stupid, NORAD is going to bomb moscow back into the stone age, and then throw it into a microwave. I'm still hearing inklings of an under-development Neutrino charge. I'm not gonna swear by that, but I'm pretty sure if it is; By now we're almost done with it.

Scared of Russia? Not on your life, Bub. So what if they've got first strike capability with a 57MT bomb right this very minute. Let them make the stupid mistake of hitting Texas with it; as in your little scale scenario. That would be their FIRST AND LAST mistake. And before this gets too in-depth, I'm done.

Wow arn't you the feisty one... "bub"
22 Jan 2008 ~ 7:46pm Jokke I have only one thing to say: Russia, please don't bomb America, America, please don't bomb Russia. In fact, nobody bomb each other! It's better that way...
22 Jan 2008 ~ 7:50pm Thrax I'm pretty sure nobody is bombing anyone. People ought to watch what their fingers type from here on out.
23 Jan 2008 ~ 4:08am Leonardo The long and short of it is that the US and Russia both have enough accurate, nuclear firepower that neither nation would ever launch against the other. Nothing has changed. This 'news' was simply Putin's continuing PR to his own people (and the former Soviet states) to consolidate their respect, be it admiring or fear-based.
24 Jan 2008 ~ 8:15pm drasnor A neutrino bomb wouldn't be so bad. I doubt I'd even notice.

-drasnor
24 Jan 2008 ~ 8:19pm Thrax Until you got neutrinowned. O LAWLZ u c wat I did?
24 Jan 2008 ~ 10:56pm airbornflght Has anybody here heard of mutually assured destruction?

I would give it a 0.000001% chance of an industrialized country launching a nuclear weapon. The more possible scenario would be an unstable, or rogue government detonating a nuclear weapon and ringing the hells bells. That is what I am most afraid of. Because I'd almost guarantee you that if such a catastrophe happened WWIII would be started and the world would most likely destroy itself.

Just my $0.02
25 Jan 2008 ~ 10:13am the_technocrat I think we all know that nothing's going to happen. The substance of this story is that a country like Russia would come out and make a statement along the lines of 'btw, we're more than ready to throw the first punch. hehe, no srsly. >:| '
25 Jan 2008 ~ 12:11pm R4CK3R Some of you guys are throwing this out of proportion. The Russian's are only saying that they're going to keep nukes in their arsenal. No ones bombing anyone. Those over-sized firecrackers will see about as much action as they have in the past 20 years.
25 Jan 2008 ~ 1:04pm airbornflght I think it is like leo said. It is just the propaganda machine working. I just find it odd why they would come out on the world stage and say this when we all knew it already.
25 Jan 2008 ~ 1:08pm Thrax It's called "Posturing."
28 Jan 2008 ~ 10:56am CB MAD peace is the only peace.