Moscow will respond to Western threats of long-range strikes into Russia, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has warned.
The Russian spy chief said changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine enacted by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday have reduced the room to maneuver for Western powers in their confrontation with Moscow.
“Attempts by some NATO members to participate in the facilitation of possible long-range strikes with Western weapons deep inside Russian territory will not be left unpunished,” Naryshkin said in an interview with the Russian magazine National Defense, which was published on Wednesday.
The new nuclear deterrence guidelines provide that an attack on Russia by a non-nuclear nation backed by a nuclear one would be considered a joint operation, potentially triggering nuclear retaliation. These changes “de facto exclude the possibility of beating the Russian Armed Forces on the battlefield,” Naryshkin said.
A ‘victory plan’ unveiled by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky last month called for a Western “conventional deterrence package” to guarantee his nation’s security. He reportedly asked the US to deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles on Ukrainian soil, which Washington has refused to do, according to the media.
Zelensky also asked the US and its allies for permission to conduct long-range strikes deep inside Russia using donated weapons. US President Joe Biden reportedly granted this permission last week, leading to an attack with ATACMS ballistic missiles on Russia’s border Bryansk Region on Tuesday morning. The Russian military claimed it had intercepted or damaged all the incoming projectiles, preventing any serious damage on the ground.
Putin has argued that Ukraine is incapable of launching sophisticated Western weapons without direct involvement by donor states. Any long-range strike on Russian territory using such arms would put the country at war with NATO, he warned.
Meanwhile, Naryshkin also said in the interview that the US was causing trouble as it clings to its withering global hegemony.
“Western attempts to sow chaos and discord in Eurasia only strengthen the resolve of Russia and its regional partners to create order,” he said. “Being smart and silver-tongued is no longer sufficient for the Anglo-Americans to conjure another reality. The liberal world order is losing its glamor.”