Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that his country could take over from the US the concept of a preventive nuclear strike, and abandon the concept of using nuclear weapons exclusively in self-defense.

“When we talk about a strike aimed at (nuclear) disarmament, it might be worth thinking about adopting the ideas developed by our American colleagues, their ideas about ensuring their security,” Putin said.

Putin made comments that reflected increasingly strained relations between Russia and the West, and suggested that Moscow might consider implementing what he said was the American concept of a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

Speaking in Kyrgyzstan, at the economic summit of the countries created by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin indicated that such a strike could knock out the command posts.

“We are only thinking about it now, when they are no longer ashamed to talk about it openly in recent years,” Putin said.

He added that the precision-guided cruise missiles that Russia possesses surpass the performance of similar American weapons, and in addition, it has hypersonic weapons capable of striking command centers, which the US does not yet have in the regular lineup of its armed forces.

It seems that in his speech, Putin had in mind only conventional, precision-guided weapons when he talked about taking over and imitating the American military strategy, according to the and estimates that he emphasized that the US does not rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons first.

“If a potential adversary believes that he can use the theory of a pre-emptive strike and we don’t, it makes us think about the threat that such ideas represent in the defense positions of other countries,” Putin said.

In Kyrgyzstan, the President of Russia also expressed disappointment with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement that the 2015 peace agreement for eastern Ukraine brokered by France and Germany bought Ukraine time to prepare for the war that broke out this year.

“I thought that the other participants in the peace process were honest with us, but it turned out that they were deceiving us. It turned out that they wanted to load Ukraine with weapons and prepare for hostilities,” Putin said.

In Washington, advisers to President Joseph Biden (Joseph Biden) assessed Putin’s comments today as “sabre-wielding” and another twisted warning that he may use tactical nuclear weapons, a US official who was not authorized to speak publicly told The . made the statement under the condition of anonymity.

The official pointed out that Russian military doctrine has long provided for Moscow’s right to reserve the right of first use of nuclear weapons in response to large-scale military aggression.

A senior official at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, John Erath, also assessed Putin’s comments as another attempt by him to increase the nuclear threat.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed concern today that the fighting in Ukraine could get out of control and turn into a wider war between Russia and NATO.

Stoltenberg, the former prime minister of Norway, said in an interview that “there is no doubt that a full-scale war is a possibility”, and he added that it is important to avoid a conflict “that would involve several European countries and turn into a full-scale war in Europe”.

The Kremlin has repeatedly accused NATO allies of effectively becoming a party to Russia’s war against Ukraine by supplying Ukraine with weapons, training its army and providing intelligence so that it can successfully attack Russian troops.

Long before the war in Ukraine broke out, the Kremlin expressed concern about US efforts to develop the capability for a so-called “rapid global strike” against strategic adversary targets, which could be carried out with high-precision guided conventional weapons anywhere in the world in less than an hour.