There was a real risk that Russia would use tactical nuclear weapons in connection with the conflict in Ukraine by the fall of 2022, CIA Director William Burns said at an event hosted by the Financial Times.
This was his response to a question from the moderator of the conversation, who asked if there was information about the “Russian escalation” that the CIA did not share with British intelligence MI6, which caused laughter in the room. The intelligence chief said that no one should underestimate the risks of an escalation.
The CIA director recalled that at the end of 2022, on the instructions of the president, he met with the head of the SVR Sergei Naryshkinto “make clear what the consequences of this kind of escalation would be, and we remain very clear on that.”
In September 2022, the Russian president Vladimir Putin After signing the treaties on the annexation of the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, he said that “all available forces and means” could be used to protect the territorial integrity of the country and ensure the security of the new regions.
This summer, Putin called the use of nuclear weapons “theoretically possible” if there was a threat to the territorial integrity, independence, sovereignty and existence of the Russian state. He later said such actions were not necessary.
The meeting in question between Burns and Naryshkin took place in mid-November 2022 in Ankara. The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service confirmed the conversation with his colleague on nuclear security and called the conversation significant. In turn, the CIA director called the conversation “quite depressing” and affirmed a “very defiant attitude” on the part of Naryshkin. In his in absentia response, he doubted that the meeting would have lasted two and a half hours if such an atmosphere had reigned, RBC recalls.
As CNN found out, the US side began preparing for the possible use of nuclear weapons by Russia in Ukraine from the end of 2022. This was preceded by analysis, study of the situation and receipt of new extremely important intelligence data. According to a CNN source, the US wanted to formulate an action plan in advance if “the unthinkable event really happens.”
