Leaked Russian documents show the impossibility of deliberate nuclear war
Why accidental Armageddon is the only likely scenario
Recently, a leaked letter from a Federal Security Bureau (FSB) whistleblower codenamed the Wind of Change suggested that Putin was too “scared” to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. This was the headline in Newsweek at least. The actual letter is far more interesting.
Firstly, the letter is from March 4, so it is already very out of date and who knows to what level of despair Putin has reached now. It may be completely inaccurate.
What the letter does, however, is outline precisely why Putin wouldn’t use nuclear weapons.
The first is that the whistleblower believes that the Kremlin would block any such order from the Commander-in-Chief.
This is certainly plausible. After all, Putin doesn’t have direct control over Russia’s nuclear arsenal. He has to ask individual commanders to fire their weapons. They could refuse. It could even cause a coup.
Another question the whistleblower raises is whether the Russian nuclear arsenal actually works. Every nuclear armed nation has this problem, and three national labs, Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore are dedicated to maintaining our nuclear arsenal. Part of…
