Russia Warns US Against Decapitation Strike Against Putin

Lavrov: "Some 'unnamed officials' from the Pentagon actually threatened to deliver a 'decapitation strike' against the Kremlin", and to "physically remove the Russian head of state". Image | Enhanced by Donald Standeford.

By Donald Standeford, SJ Founder/Publisher
December 28, 2022 08:00 pm UTC
Modified: 2022-12-28 08:00 pm

MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has put out a warning to the United States against carrying out a "decapitation strike" on Russian President Vladimir Putin, responding to an "anonymous" US military official who told Newsweek In September about a special operation to "kill Putin in the heart of the Kremlin".

The anonymous official said that the special operation to kill Putin was a non-nuclear option at the "front and center" of options that were being considered by the United States in response to the increasing nuclear rhetoric by the Kremlin.

Newsweek cited a civilian working at the Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska who reportedly said, "It's the closest we've been to the use of nuclear weapons in over 50 years, But I'm not so sure that we are communicating the right thing to deter Putin."

Lavrov spoke to Russian state news TASS and said, "Some 'unnamed officials' from the Pentagon actually threatened to deliver a 'decapitation strike' against the Kremlin".

He said that the plans were “essentially a threat to physically remove the Russian head of state,” and warned that there would be "consequences" if any such attack were to be attempted.

The Russian embassy in Washington had, at the time said that the plans were "reckless" and "delusional" and that the options listed were "crazy options".

The embassy stated, "I would like to believe that such delusional arguments do not reflect the official position of the U.S. military department".

It added at the time, "We proceed from the fact that Washington is well aware of the escalating nature of such reckless rhetoric."

The Biden Administration Favors Non-Nuclear Options Over Nuclear Options

In their report, Newsweek cited a "nuclear planner" and "two other senior officers" as saying that Biden favors non-nuclear options over nuclear options if Russia "crosses the nuclear threshold", but said that in order to deter Putin from using nuclear weapons, the United States needs to "talk the nuclear talk" and not be held back by the fear of having to "walk the walk".

The news agency cited one senior intelligence officer as saying, "We're in uncharted territory. Threatening to respond forcefully and creating catastrophic consequences for Russia [without] suggesting nuclear war: Is that strong enough to deter Putin? And is it really clear? I'm not so sure."

Newsweek cited a former bomber pilot, who is "now a Washington-based Pentagon officer" as saying, "We have to ponder whether other [non-nuclear] threats are powerful enough to deter Putin".

Putin Says That His Threat Of A Nuclear Response To An Attack Is "Not A Bluff"

Putin had said that his threats to use nuclear weapons over the conflict in Ukraine if Russia was ever directly attacked "is not a bluff" during a special television address to announce Russia's first military mobilization since world war 2.

"In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us," Putin had said in the address.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council have made many comments regarding the usage of nuclear weapons and suggested striking locations outside of Ukraine, not just an internal strike within the current conflict zone.

Russian state media and officials, including a former Putin advisor, have also repeatedly spoken of striking regions outside of Ukraine with nuclear missiles, including striking London.

Sergei Markov spoke to BBC after Putin's declaration of a partial mobilization and said, “In Russia, there’s partial mobilization and for your British listeners Vladimir Putin told you that he would be ready to use nuclear weapons against Western countries, including nuclear weapons against Great Britain".

"Your cities will be targeted," he added.

“Everybody in the world now is thinking of nuclear war,” Markov stated, saying that the escalation would be in response to the “crazy behavior” of US President Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss.

"Biden, Johnson, and Truss are fully responsible for the war in Ukraine,” he stated. "It was absolutely clear that Russia has no war against Ukraine, Russia has no reason to use technical nuclear weapons against Ukrainians".

He went on to say, “Ukrainians are our brothers but Ukraine is occupied by Western countries and it’s Western countries fighting against the Russian army using Ukrainian soldiers as slaves".

“[This] was the main idea of Vladimir Putin’s [speech], that’s why we need to have this partial mobilization. Russia does not want everybody in the world to die, but what Russia wants is to solve this war with Western countries conducted against Russia on Ukrainian territory, which Western countries in fact occupy".

Foreign Officer minister and UK Secretary of State for Education Gillian Keegan said “talk of nuclear war is completely unhelpful.”

The Pentagon official reportedly told Newsweek that "The IC doesn't expect a nuclear strike in Ukraine itself".

"This is not about the use of a tactical nuclear weapon to turn the tide of the war. It is a signal, first to the United States and secondarily to NATO not to continue the war into Russia, nor to threaten Putin directly." the official reportedly added.

Response For Use Of An EMP, Collapsing Electricity Grid Still Murky, Uncharted Territory

Newsweek cited the Strategic Command planner as saying, "We've been table-topping different scenarios for months now," and spoke of various scenarios ranging from a nuclear attack in Western Europe to a high-altitude nuclear blast powerful enough to create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) capable of collapsing the electricity grid.

The possibility of an EMP attack particularly concerned the nuclear planners, according to Newsweek, because such an attack would not be a "physical attack on land" even though it does cross the nuclear threshold, which would complicate the question of whether the United States should respond automatically with a nuclear weapon attack of their own.

James Scouras, a senior scholar at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory wrote, "Not all nuclear wars would be ... catastrophic; some, perhaps involving electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks using only a few high-altitude detonations or demonstration strikes of various kinds, could result in few casualties."

He also said that not enough work has been done on EMP to fully understand the effects of such a strike.

The Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command Admiral Charles Richard said in March, "Every operational plan in the DoD [Department of Defense], and every other capability we have, rests on the assumption that strategic deterrence, and in particular nuclear deterrence, will hold".

"If strategic or nuclear deterrence fails ... no other plan or capability in the DoD will work as designed," he added.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also said, "I can tell you that we don't see any indication that we need to change our strategic deterrent posture at this point".