Russia presents a new nuclear threat – is Putin bluffing? | World news

With Vladimir Putin issuing another veiled nuclear threat to the West, I came to one of Moscow’s Cold War bunkers to gauge the mood.

The entrance is through a seemingly ordinary building, not far from the Kremlin.

But inside, there are 18 flights of stairs, which take you 65 meters (213 feet) underground and into an extensive network of tunnels and chambers.

Almost immediately, it feels like I went back in time. There is Soviet memorabilia everywhere, even a Stalin dummy.

Bunker-42 was built as a top-secret command center for from Moscow strategic bombers, and remained so until 1986.

It is now a museum and my trip coincides with a Russian tour group.

So what do they think by Vladimir Putin last threat – that Russia could press the red button if hit by conventional weapons?

“Everyone is afraid of a situation like this,” one man told me. “But when you’re surrounded by enemies on all sides, you probably have no other options.”

The museum serves as a reminder of how close the world came to nuclear war.

The group’s faces are illuminated in the darkness by a video of huge explosions of mushroom clouds. But still, there does not seem to be any feeling among them that Russia is acting irresponsibly.

“In a situation like ours now, having nuclear weapons and not using them is equivalent to suicide,” says another man.

“I hope the West understands us correctly and stops interfering, backs down.”

Is the Kremlin bluffing?

Current tensions are a far cry from the Cuban missile crisis, but warnings from Moscow give the feeling that history may be starting to repeat itself.

And the question now is the same as it was during the Cold War: is the Kremlin bluffing or not?

After all, Russia’s red lines have been crossed before, since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The West supplied Kiev with missiles, battle tanks and fighter planes, all without escalation.

But this time, apparently, it’s different.

“Have you ever heard the old Russian proverb that Russians are slow to act, but then move quickly? That’s the case,” Maria Butina, a Russian deputy, told me outside the State Duma.

So if Ukraine uses British Storm Shadow missiles to attack inside Russia, will Moscow “act quickly” and destroy London?

Her response: “You must take everything written in our nuclear doctrine very seriously.”

Nuclear threat is Russian ‘rhetoric’

But those outside Russia aren’t so sure.

“It’s rhetoric,” Sam Greene, professor of Russian politics at King’s College London, told me.

“The indication is that Russia, despite all its arrogance and all its aggression, does not want a nuclear conflict with the West, or even a conventional conflict with NATOjust as the West does not want this type of conflict with Russia.

“The purpose of this is to make it more difficult for Western policymakers to define a course of action.”

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Meanwhile, back at the bunker, the tour ends with a simulation of what would have happened in the event of a nuclear attack.

The tunnel is plunged into darkness. A siren sounds. Red lights flash. Then a voice announces the destruction of Moscow after an enemy attack.

But the only one threatening this course now, of course, is Russia itself.