US President Joe Biden on Thursday expressed his scepticism towards the comments Russian President Vladimir Putin made with respect to nuclear weapons at the Valdai Dialogues in Moscow.
At the Valdai Discussion Club, Russian president Vladimir Putin played down chances of a nuclear standoff with the West. He insisted that Russia never proactively said it would use nuclear weapons.
“We never proactively said anything about the possible use of nuclear weapons by Russia, but only hinted at the statements made by the leaders of Western countries,” Putin said while pointing to a statement made by former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, who according to him, issued a nuclear threat in an indirect manner.
Putin said that the whole rhetoric of nuclear provocation was being used to make Russia look like the perpetrator and influence neutral nations and Russia’s friends to switch over to the West’s side.
Biden, however, asked: “If he has no intention, why does he keep talking about it? Why is he talking about the ability to use a tactical nuclear weapon?”
The US President was speaking to broadcast news agency NewsNation where he further said: “He’s been very dangerous in how he’s approached this.”
Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev and other Kremlin officials in the past weeks have said that Russia is not ruling out the possibility of using nuclear weapons if it deems there is a threat to its existence.
The US itself also accepted this week that there are no signs that Russia was considering using a so-called ‘dirty bomb’ in order to set up a pretext to blame Ukraine later.
“We’re not seeing any signs, even today, that the Russians are planning to use a dirty bomb or to even make preparations for that,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said while speaking to CNN.
The UN nuclear chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Thursday that inspectors will be dispatched to two locations in Ukraine where Russia alleged that “dirty bombs” are being produced and said he expects them to reach a conclusion “in days.”
Russian envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told the UN that Russia will be happy if it is proven wrong following the inspection.
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