The international affairs analyst at CNN Lourival Sant’Anna assesses that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “doing everything he can” to confront Ukraine and NATO, but his options are running out after 31 months of conflict.
According to Lourival, Putin has repeatedly made threats, including nuclear ones, against his adversaries.
However, the analyst highlights that all the “red lines” drawn by the Russian leader were crossed by NATO “without any consequences”.
The expert points out that Russia has already been cooperating militarily with North Korea and Iran, providing dual-use technology. However, Lourival emphasizes that it is Putin who benefits most from this relationship, receiving North Korean missiles and Iranian drones to use in the war.
“Putin is doing everything he can to confront, to deter, not only Ukraine, but NATO. And he has nothing else to do other than what he is doing,” the analyst says.
Nuclear threat unlikely
Lourival considers it highly unlikely that Putin will use nuclear weapons, classifying such an action as a “resounding suicide”.
He explains that a nuclear attack on Ukraine would affect Russia itself due to geographical proximity, while an attack on NATO would result in devastating retaliation, even with conventional weapons.
“NATO does not need nuclear weapons to destroy Russia,” the expert emphasizes.
In Lourival Sant’Anna’s assessment, Putin’s threats are mainly rhetorical, aimed at dissuading Western governments from making decisions that are detrimental to the Russian campaign.
“He uses these threats to try to dissuade governments from making decisions that will be detrimental to his campaign. But that’s all it is, it’s pure rhetoric,” the analyst concludes.
This content was originally published in Analysis: Putin is doing everything he can to confront Ukraine and NATO on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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