Nuclear escalation with US is suicide for Russia – German general

Lieutenant General Heinrich Brauss, retired Bundeswehr officer and former assistant secretary general of NATO for defence policy and planning (2013–2018), said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

Deterrence, he explained, is based on a combination of US strategic nuclear forces (the nuclear triad) and American precision nuclear bombs stationed in Europe, currently stored in five countries: Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey.

He stated that the aim was to prevent an attack, counter Russian blackmail, and neutralize it by demonstrating the Alliance's ability to strike designated targets in Russia with nuclear weapons. And in case of an emergency decision to use them, combat aircraft would deploy these weapons against targets in Russia.

He noted that a new and significant aspect was the United Kingdom's decision to join this effort, which, in his view, strengthened the credibility of extended deterrence, as Britain's strategic submarine-based nuclear capabilities were now complemented by the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons on combat aircraft and possibly by B61-12 bombs, if the US president and NATO decided, in extreme cases, to strike specific targets in Russia with nuclear weapons.

Brauss said that Russia was aware of all this and took it into account in its strategic calculations. Commenting on reports about Russia's testing and deployment of systems such as Oreshnik, Poseidon, and Burevestnik, he argued that these were deliberate demonstrations intended to instill fear in the governments and parliaments of allied nations and among their citizens.

He believed that the role of these systems in Russia's nuclear strategy was not fundamentally new and did not alter the strategic nuclear balance between the US and Russia.

He also stated that none of these developments changed the principles or credibility of US and NATO deterrence, since the United States retained the ability to deliver a devastating nuclear second strike even after a massive Russian first strike. He emphasized that the cold logic of Mutual Assured Destruction remained the foundation of deterrence and the key factor preventing war between the two superpowers.

Brauss further pointed out that Moscow needed to keep in mind that NATO was fully prepared for defense, as collective defense was its raison d'etre and core mission. He warned that as long as there was a possibility of full American involvement, the risk for Russia of losing a war against NATO, or even against individual allies, would remain very high.

He concluded that if the Americans became involved, Russian strategists would always have to consider the danger of escalation to a nuclear confrontation with the United States, which, in his words, would amount to suicide for Russia itself.

As reported, at the end of the week Russia conducted a test launch of a long-range Burevestnik cruise missile with a nuclear propulsion system from the Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya in the Barents Sea. Putin claimed it was another weapon with "no analogues."