‘Nuclear card’ worked on Biden and Scholz — now Putin probing Trump, military expert says

This opinion was expressed in a comment to Ukrinform by Austrian military expert Gustav Gressel, a lecturer at the Austrian National Defence Academy.

“Putin saw during the Biden and Scholz administrations that fear of nuclear war works: the quality and quantity of aid to Ukraine were restrained precisely due to the fear of nuclear war. They have tried to corrupt Trump, to buy him — that hasn’t worked yet. And so now they are trying to pull out the ‘nuclear card’ again and see whether it will work on Trump — whether he will become more inclined to agree to Russian demands,” Gressel said, commenting on Russia’s tests of the Burevestnik missile and the Poseidon drone.

According to him, the Russians “are trying everything they can.”

At the same time, the military expert noted that the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile looks more like an instrument of information warfare rather than a real weapon suitable for use.

“I don’t see any real military advantage in this system. On the contrary: when a reactor is flying, I practically cannot use it as a conventional weapon. If someone fires a ‘reactor’ at me, I perceive it as a nuclear attack, even if the warhead is not nuclear,” Gressel said.

He explained that Russian missiles and other delivery systems traditionally have flexible dual-use options — conventional or nuclear: “First strike with a conventional warhead, then threaten that the next one will be nuclear — that’s how they raise the stakes.” But the Burevestnik, if it truly exists as a deployable weapon, breaks this logic, the expert stressed.

“Does this weapon exist? I don’t know whether it really exists. And even if it did, its value would be limited,” Gressel added.

As for the Poseidon autonomous underwater vehicle with a nuclear power unit and a potential nuclear warhead, he considers this weapon to be more realistic. However, Gressel dismissed Russian propaganda stories about “gigantic radioactive tsunamis” as “an informational fairy tale.” In his view, the system is more likely an underwater “loitering drone” capable of remaining for long periods in areas where U.S. strategic submarines patrol, in order to reduce their ability to carry out a retaliatory strike in the event of nuclear war.

As reported by Ukrinform earlier, Kremlin chief Putin has recently made several statements regarding nuclear weapons, including announcements about tests of the Burevestnik and Poseidon.