September 21, 2022
You may have missed it – but overnight — Vladimir Putin made a not so veiled threat to use nuclear weapons to protect Russia in the wake of a massive Ukraine offensive that has sort of embarrassed Putin. Putin said “we of course will use all the means at our disposal. This is not a bluff.” As a result President Biden called Putin out in front of the entire United Nations general assembly today.
I know we haven’t talked about the Russia and Ukraine war in a while – but in the last few weeks Ukraine has really made some incredible advances and has pushed Russian troops back and in some cases out of Ukraine. That indicates Russia’s fighting force isn’t what it was hyped up to be. The lack of performance of the Russian troops have embarrasses Putin politically and led to his speech last night where he announced the mobilization of some 300,000 additional Russian military reservists – which is seen as a major escalation in this fight. Side note – one way airline tickets out of Russia are nearly sold out as Russians try to get out of the country before they’re called up.
In response — President Biden blasted Russia right at the beginning of his speech to the United Nations general assembly today. He said Putin is making irresponsible nuclear threats, that this war is only happening because of Putin’s ambitions and that Russia– which is a member of permanent UN Security Council—has violated core tenants of the u-n charter. He says the UN should hold Russia accountable for its atrocities and war crimes.”
Now – Putin has made statements about the use of nuclear weapons in the past, and so far, he hasn’t done anything. US intelligence agencies are watching closely.
