This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel. I welcome my colleague of Anastradner of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,

writing most recently at the New York Post about a theme that's been constant these last three years of war fighting in Ukraine,

which is now and again the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, will talk about nuclear weapons and the need for patrolling Russia's borders and the use of nuclear weapons.

Most recently, there was news that the Duma had lowered the threshold of using nuclear weapons to include,

and then there were lots of caveats.

I welcome Ivana to comment on this, because recently she's written at the New York Post,

summarizing all the instances that Mr. Putin talks of nuclear weapons,

and now and again, other parts of the Kremlin apparatus talk of nuclear weapons,

and why, and how we should hear it.

Ivana, a very good evening to you. Yes, Vladimir Putin has a nuclear arsenal. Yes, to my knowledge,

he's never used it in anger. How do you hear all of these instances over the last three years? Why is he doing this? Good evening to you.

Good evening. Thank you very much for inviting me indeed. Yes, Russia has a serious nuclear arsenal

and Putin has no rational incentive to use it. However, Putin is a KGB guy who knows perfectly

what resonates the most with the West,

especially here in Washington, D.C., where people fear nuclear escalation.

As soon as he started his full-scale invasion in 2022, he also completely opened a new front in the information space engaging in psychological

mind games. Basically, among Putin's most effective tactic by far has been to use nuclear

blackmail to play on Western fears of

escalation. And he has repeatedly used this tactic to successfully deter the West from scaling

up military aid to Ukraine, providing new types of weapons, and fully backing Kiev's ultimate victory over Moscow.

And these manipulations actually mirror the old Soviet technique of interfering in another

country's decision making until the country's government is compelled to take actions in

...