It's Thursday, October 6th, 2022, and this is the Daily Article podcast.

Today's article is written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins of the Denison Forum.

In 2018, a pro-Kremlin journalist asked Russian President Vladimir Putin,

in what scenario Russia would use nuclear weapons?

He replied,

If someone decides to destroy Russia, then we have a legal right to respond.

He admitted that, for humanity it will be a global catastrophe,

but added perilously, still, as citizens of Russia and head of the Russian

state, then I want to ask myself the question, why do we need such a world if there is no

Russia there? Putin claimed that Russia would launch a nuclear weapon only if it detected the

launch of missiles headed for Russia, but he did not

clarify if Russia would respond only in the case of nuclear warheads or non-nuclear missiles

in general. Fast forward to the present, Putin signed the final papers yesterday to illegally

annex four regions of eastern Ukraine as Russian territory.

Ukraine is continuing its offense in some of these areas, forcing widespread Russian retreats.

Ukrainian guided missiles supplied by the U.S. and the U.K. have been instrumental in changing

the course of the war against Russia.

Will Putin now see such missile strikes against his forces in annexed Ukrainian regions

as missile launches against Russia?

This scenario is just one reason, Cold War historian Michael Dobbs,

author of the definitive account of the Cuban Missile Crisis,

is warning that the conflict in Ukraine presents peril of at least equal magnitude to that confrontation.

...