CIA Director Bill Burns testifies next to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines during a House (Select) Intelligence Committee hearing on diversity in the intelligence community on Capitol Hill on October 27, 2021 in Washington.
Elisabeth Franz | Reuters
CIA Director William Burns believes there is a real risk that Russia could use nuclear weapons on the battlefield against Ukraine by the fall of 2022, but he said the West should not be intimidated by threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin fall.
“None of us should take the risk of escalation lightly,” Burns said in a moderated conversation with Britain’s secret intelligence chief Richard Moore on Saturday. Financial Times Weekend Festival.
“At some point in the fall of 2022, I think there is a real risk of potential use of tactical nuclear weapons,” Burns said.
Burns added: “However, it has never occurred to me, and that is the view of my agency, that we should be subject to unnecessary intimidation. Putin is a bully. He will continue to use force.”
The CIA director recalled that Burns met with Russian President Sergei Naryshkin in late 2022 on orders from President Joe Biden to reiterate the “consequences” of a nuclear escalation.
“We’ve been very direct about it,” Burns said Saturday.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment outside regular business hours.
In the more than two years since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has frequently signaled that it would consider using nuclear weapons in a war.
The hints have grown louder since Ukraine’s offensive in Russia’s Kursk region in early August, to which Putin promised a “valuable response.”
Burns said the Kursk offensive boosted morale among Ukrainian troops, which in turn unnerved the Kremlin: “It exposed some of the weaknesses of Putin’s Russia and its military.”
Russian official nuclear doctrine It is defensive in nature and based on the principle of deterrence. It permits the use of nuclear weapons in response to an attack with nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies, as well as in response to a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the Russian state.
But in the wake of Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Sunday that the Kremlin was studying changes to nuclear codes.
“There is a clear direction of adjustment,” Ryabkov said, without specifying whether the change in nuclear doctrine would ultimately be finalized.
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