According to a senior Russian strategist, Vladimir Putin has come to believe that the current liberal power structure centered in London and Berlin has become so dangerous that only an extreme, civilization-level shock could bring the Ukraine war — and the wider societal breakdown — to an end.
The revelation came from Tucker Carlson, who says the threat was delivered directly by one of Vladimir Putin’s closest geopolitical minds, Sergey Karaganov — a longtime Kremlin insider whose views are widely seen as a proxy for Putin’s own thinking.
Carlson revealed the exchange from a recent interview with Karaganov, where the Russian official made the threat in unmistakable terms.
“In that interview, he says point blank, yes, if the Ukraine war continues at this tempo for a year or two more, we — speaking apparently on behalf of the Russian government — will eliminate the UK and Germany with nuclear weapons,” Carlson said.
That statement alone should have sent shockwaves through every Western capital. But the danger goes far beyond the immediate blast.
Russia Lowers the Nuclear Trigger
In November 2024, Moscow quietly rewrote its nuclear doctrine, radically expanding the conditions under which it claims the right to use atomic weapons.
The new policy allows Russia to launch nuclear strikes not just in response to nuclear attacks, but also:
- In response to conventional military attacks
- Against non-nuclear countries if they are backed by nuclear powers
- Against allied states aiding an enemy — including NATO members
That shift effectively places the entire Western alliance inside Russia’s declared strike zone because of its support for Ukraine.
On the very day the doctrine was signed, Ukraine began firing U.S.- and NATO-supplied long-range missiles into Russian territory — weapons capable of carrying nuclear warheads, even if they are currently armed with conventional explosives.
The Return of “Doomsday” Weapons
At the same time, Russia has revived testing of its nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile — a weapon so extreme that the United States abandoned a similar project decades ago.
Often called a “doomsday” missile, Burevestnik is designed to fly for days or weeks after a nuclear exchange, spreading radioactive destruction over vast distances. Russian tests have reportedly resulted in radioactive contamination and even the deaths of nuclear specialists.
During the Cold War, the U.S. pursued a comparable weapon under Project Pluto — a nuclear-powered cruise missile intended to make sure nothing survived a global war. It was eventually scrapped because it was simply too lethal and uncontrollable.