Kremlin: Putin to chair meeting on nuclear deterrence

Russian President Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting of Russia's Security Council on Wednesday to discuss nuclear deterrence, the Kremlin announced, as Moscow considers how to respond to Ukraine's requests for Western countries to allow it to strike deep into Russia with long-range missiles.

The 2½-year-old war in Ukraine has caused the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which is regarded as the moment when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to an intentional nuclear war.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Wednesday's meeting as significant.

"There will be a speech by the president. The rest, for obvious reasons, will be marked 'top secret,'" Peskov told reporters.

Russia has stated that it is in the process of revising its nuclear doctrine, which outlines the circumstances under which it might resort to the use of nuclear weapons.

Russia will not test a nuclear weapon as long as the United States refrains from testing, Putin's representative for arms control said on Monday, following speculation that the Kremlin might abandon its post-Soviet nuclear test moratorium.

Reuters