A Moscow insider has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently attempted to detonate a nuclear weapon, but that his efforts were sabotaged by top brass at the Kremlin.
The report, published at the The Mirror, also says unspecified technical issues could account for the failure of Russian nukes in recent weeks.
“[Putin’s] decision on the use of tactical nuclear weapons [in the Ukraine conflict] would no doubt face resistance,” The Mirror quoted Valery Solovey as saying.
Solovey is a political scientist, historian, an expert on Putin, and former head of Public Relations at Moscow’s Institute of International Relations [MGIMO], a training school for spies and diplomats.
“I don’t know how effective the resistance will be but I will indicate [that] nuclear tests were supposed to be held over the past two weeks, one in the Barents sea, underwater, and the second underground, in Arkhangelsk region. Both times the tests were not held,” he said.
“The reason is that before the launch, or more accurately, before the use of tactical nuclear weapons, it is necessary to make sure these weapons are fully operable,” he explained. “They had to be tested.”
Solovey says that each time, the tests were “disrupted.” According to his statement, Putin received notice of an “emergency situation” that the nuclear detonations “didn’t work out.” He claimed that Putin has already made a commitment to using some type of nuclear weapon in the war with Ukraine and that Putin has rescheduled the tests for some time in the future.
“But the thing is, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence,” he said.
He added that if the third round of tests ended the same way, it would look like sabotage and show the “dissolution of [Putin’s] authority, of Russia’s executive power” by officials declining to fulfill “the orders of the chief commander.”
Tensions between Russia, Ukraine and NATO countries have remained high over the past several weeks, as Moscow declared martial law in four recently annexed territories, deployed nuclear bombers to the border of a NATO country, and Russian missile strikes hit 10 Ukrainian cities, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens more.
