'Nuclear war = world war 3.'
Through an official speech at the annual Valdai conference, President Vladimir Putin not only justified his actions but issued a warning that the current crisis is far worse than the situation during World War 2.
The Russian leader accused the West of using nuclear weapons to blackmail its allies into turning away from Moscow.
It is believed to follow a NATO ally's statement condemning Russia's claim that Ukraine used a 'dirty bomb', which is a type of bond containing radioactive material to fight Moscow.
At the time, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who represented the other allies, described Russia's accusations as nonsense and advised the Kremlin not to make any baseless statements.
Speaking about Russia's nuclear weapons, Putin said the Kremlin never planned to use the destructive bomb and was only responding to the voices of Western leaders.
Even so, he did not deny that Russia will use all available resources to 'defend itself' and this matter is assessed as if it gives an impression of the threat of nuclear weapons.
On the other hand, the President of the United States (US) Joe Biden was seen criticizing Putin's statement.
He explained that Putin was deliberately playing with the 'very dangerous' rhetorical puzzle of the potential use of nuclear weapons by often touching on the matter in his speech.
