By Guy Faulconbridge and Lydia Kelly
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia, the world's largest nuclear power, could reduce the decision-making time set out in the official policy on the use of nuclear weapons if Moscow believes threats are increasing, the head of the Russian parliament's defense committee said.
The war in Ukraine sparked the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, with President Vladimir Putin saying last month that Russia might change its official nuclear doctrine that sets the conditions under which such weapons can be used.
The RIA news agency quoted Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Defense Committee of the Russian Parliament's lower house of parliament, as saying on Sunday that if threats increase, the time for making a decision on the use of such weapons may change.
“If we see that challenges and threats are increasing, this means that we can correct something in (the principle) regarding the timing of the use of nuclear weapons and the decision to carry out such use,” Kartapolov was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.
Kartapolov, who once commanded Russian forces in Syria and now serves as a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party, added that it was too early to talk about specific changes to nuclear doctrine.
Russia's 2020 nuclear doctrine specifies when its president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, or conventional weapons “when the very existence of the state is under threat.”
Russia and the United States are the world's two largest nuclear powers by a wide margin, possessing about 88% of the world's nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Both are modernizing their nuclear arsenals, while China is rapidly working to strengthen its own.
Putin said this month that Russia did not need to use nuclear weapons to ensure victory in Ukraine, the Kremlin's strongest signal yet that Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II would not escalate into a nuclear war.
Pressure from extremists
But he also said he did not rule out changes to Russian nuclear doctrine. This was seen as a sign of pressure from hardliners in the Russian elite who believe Putin should be able to act more quickly on nuclear escalation and lower the threshold for use.
Putin said again last week that nuclear doctrine may have to be changed because Russia's adversaries are developing low-yield nuclear devices.
Both Moscow and Washington made significant cuts to their weapons as the Soviet Union collapsed, but the Cold War arms control structure has collapsed and many diplomats say they now fear a new arms race.
The United States may have to deploy more strategic nuclear weapons in the coming years to deter growing threats from Russia, China and other adversaries, a senior White House aide said this month.
Russia says it is interested in discussing arms control with the United States, but only as part of a broader discussion related to European security and Ukraine's future.
The 2022 US Nuclear Posture Review states that Russia and China are developing their nuclear arsenals such that by the 2030s “the United States will, for the first time in its history, face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors and potential adversaries.”