A prominent Putin media ally made another worrying nuclear claim

Prominent Russian media personality Valdimir Solovyov has openly stated that Moscow would be quick to launch nuclear weapons if Russia were ever involved in a conflict with a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 

Solovyov is considered to be “the most energetic Kremlin propagandist around today” by the U.S. Department of State and he’s served as a pro-Kremlin television and radio host for the country’s leadership in Moscow since 2010. 

According to Newsweek’s Jon Jackson, Solovyov is a staunch ally of Vladimir Putin who is known for making “controversial statements.” One of the television host’s most recent diatribes deemed the West to be an existential enemy. 

"We need to recognize the West is our enemy—systemic, centuries-old, millennia-old, existential. There can be no mutual coexistence," Solovyov said on his show according to a translation of his remarks quoted by Newsweek. 

"We can be so strong that they have to bite their filthy tongues, or as soon as we weaken, they will try to destroy us, as they have done every century. Any games with them weaken us," Solovyov added.

It should come as no surprise that a political commentator so willing to flirt with such inflammatory language would also be willing to discuss the use of nuclear weapons against a NATO country if Russia became involved in a conflict. 

On November 13th, Newsweek’s Thomas Kika reported on a Twitter post from the Russian media watchdog The Kremlin Yap, which posted a clip from a recent episode of Solovyov’s show where he discussed using nuclear weapons against NATO members.

Solovyov was responding to a comment from Colonel Peter Nielsen, the commander of NATO forces inside Lithuania, regarding the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad no longer being a threat to NATO forces in the region. 

Colonel Nielsen suggested that Kaliningrad could be blockaded if a larger conflict with Russia broke out between the country and NATO, a remark that Solovyov took to heart while speaking with his guests on his show. He responded with an explanation of what Moscow would do if Kaliningrad was blockaded.  

Screenshot from Wikipedia, Wiki Maps, OpenStreetMaps

"Does he think that they will encircle us in a blockade, and we will sit and count our bullets?" Solovyov said according to a translation quoted by Newsweek. "Doesn't he realize that we're going to strike with nuclear weapons right away?”

"Do you honestly think that we, with all our gigantic stockpile of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, will listen to [those opposed to the use of nuclear weapons], who always say, 'No, stop it'? We won't even ask them,” Solovyov continued.

Thomas Kika pointed out that any such nuclear attack from Russia would trigger Article 5 of NATO’s treaty, which is the mutual defense commitment of the alliance that ties all member states together in the event of an attack. 

If one NATO member state is attacked, it would draw a response from every other member of the alliance. So, it’s easy to see how an attack could quickly spiral out of control and lead to a global nuclear war if Russia attacked a NATO nation. 

However, it’s important to point out that the NATO alliance is a defensive alliance, which means that the organization would never blockade Kaliningrad, or attack Russia unless it was first to attack Russia or any of Mosocow’s allies. 

This isn’t the first time Solovyov has called for the use of nuclear weapons while on air. In March, he called for a nuclear strike on any country that tried to take Vladimir Putin into custody after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest according to Newsweek. 

“Just so they know, any attempt to implement it is a declaration of war… And it calls for an immediate nuclear strike on that country! Immediate! That's to say, any attempt to do it, to go against the will of the Russian people… must result in a missile strike!" Solovyov said.