The Belarus bombshell

Putin's nuclear threat must be taken seriously

The threat of nuclear war looms with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent moves at the start of the second year of his invasion of Ukraine. Having declared, ahead of the first anniversary of the war, that Russia would halt its participation in New Start, the last major remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the US signed in the Obama era, and put its nuclear arsenal on high alert, Mr Putin recently announced he would deploy tactical (or battlefield) weapons in Belarus, the former Soviet republic that is Russia’s sole western ally. Mr Putin told the Russian state broadcaster over the