Millions of innocent people could die if Vladimir Putin orders a nuclear strike, the West was warned today. Sergei Karaganov, 74, known as 'Professor Doomsday' and Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of Russia's Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, is a longtime adviser to the Russian president.
Karaganov bluntly warned that Russia will go nuclear if Western allies such as the UK send troops into Ukraine or touch the Kremlin's Baltic Sea outpost, Kaliningrad, or other territory.
Nuclear warning over NATO deployment
“I hope it does not come to that, but Russia would be forced to launch a nuclear strike if NATO countries deployed troops to Ukrainian territory or if there were a direct threat to Russian territory,” he said.
“Fortunately, both the Foreign Minister [Sergei Lavrov] and the President [Vladimir Putin] himself have stated that if the situation escalates—for instance, if NATO were to act directly on our soil, specifically in Kaliningrad—the war would be short.”
He gave a chilling smile as he said: “It is absolutely clear that such a war would be nuclear.”
Claims of victory and moral damage
Karaganov claimed: “I do not want that, and I am actively working to prevent such a scenario.”
Yet he boasted: “A nuclear war in Europe could easily be won. But it would inflict terrible moral damage on us, and millions of innocent people would perish.”
The deaths, he implied, would be in Europe. He did not mention the prospect of a reprisal strike by NATO.
Preemptive strike comments
Reminded by an interviewer that he earlier proposed “launching a preemptive nuclear strike”, he replied: “It's not too late. It's never too late.”
“I hope things won't come to that, but I am very pleased that both the Russian President and the Foreign Minister have started saying that if a war were to break out, it would be very short. And that means exactly what I was saying.”
Karaganov was for 12 years an advisor to the Kremlin and hosted a discussion with the president in 2024. He is academic supervisor of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at Moscow's Higher School of Economics (HSE), and of its Institute for Global Military Economics and Strategy. The school lists him as a distinguished professor and member of its Academic Council. He is also chairman of the editorial board of Russia in Global Affairs.
