Russia Threatens Nuclear War in Unprecedented Escalation.

The world stands on the brink of a new crisis — a decision by the Biden administration has authorized Ukraine to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles at Russia, a move with echoes of the Cuban Missile Crisis. With tensions now redlining, this episode examines the serious global implications of a potential escalation into nuclear conflict. Expert insights from Bloomberg News offer clarity amid the chaos, as Russia's Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that could lead to nuclear retaliation against such attacks. This precarious balance of global power leaves the world watching and waiting, as the international community grapples with the possible consequences of this bold geopolitical maneuver.

As financial markets react with a surge in haven assets like gold and German bonds, the fallout from this decision reverberates beyond immediate military concerns. The episode also explores the broader implications for U.S. foreign policy, questioning the wisdom and risks of pushing Ukraine toward NATO membership. With former President Donald Trump potentially holding the diplomatic keys to de-escalation, we discuss his possible role in diffusing a situation fraught with the specter of mutually assured destruction. Tune in to understand the delicate interplay of diplomacy, military strategy, and international politics in this urgent global issue.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:27

In one of the last acts by the Biden administration, they have decided to authorize Ukraine to launch ICBMs at Russia. It's intercontinental ballistic missiles, which we talked about yesterday, has the capacity to reach out 300 kilometers, or 180 miles. Now, as a result of that, russia has now declared that they can use nuclear weapons in response to direct attacks to Russia. This is an unnecessary escalation in the war. The fact that the Biden administration did this is puzzling. The only reason I see and I don't have access to the intelligence right is that it makes Donald Trump's job way harder to settle this conflict. This is a serious escalation that is completely unnecessary. They should be trying to bog down the war. Trying to bog down the war. Hopefully, donald Trump has enough contact with Russia and Ukraine in order to kind of cool this situation down just a little bit. Let's listen to the news report from Bloomberg News.

Speaker 2: 1:45

Feels like a significant escalation. Does the US and the US actually and President Biden gave the blessing to Vladimir Zelensky to use these very big missiles a couple of days ago Does that come with the guarantee that if Russia escalates, the US is there to protect them?

Speaker 3: 2:03

No. Well, I think that this is a slew of questions that we do not yet have the answers to Francine, and just to recap some of the news that we just got in the last few minutes, because this all feels fairly significant, is what we got from Vladimir Putin was signing into a decree allowing Russia to fire nuclear weapons in response to any kind of massive conventional attack on its soil. That would include drones, that would include presumably long-range missiles. That Russia would view aggression against itself or its allies by non-nuclear state backed by other nuclear powers as a joint attack. In summary, basically saying that if there was an attack on Russia by a member of a coalition, that will be seen as an attack by sort of the full coalition, ie even if it's a non-nuclear power aided by a nuclear power.

Speaker 1: 2:47

This is the closest we have been to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is the closest we have been to nuclear war in almost 100 years.

Speaker 3: 3:03

That would be seen as a joint attack. This is something that Putin has been talking about signing into as a decree since September. This is officially happening now and it comes, obviously, francine, just on the heels of that sort of news that we got from Joe Biden, basically permitting the Ukrainians to begin using some of these attackams within Russian territory, in the Kursk region not sort of all across Russia, but within that region. They have a range of about 300 kilometers. And this is coming at a time right now when we understand again from Ukrainian news agencies that those first missiles have been deployed.

Speaker 3: 3:37

So what we are getting this morning in the last few minutes, is Putin, on the one hand, signing a decree that says that any sort of coalition strike that is backed by a nuclear power, even if it's by Ukraine, non-nuclear striking within Russia could see a nuclear response Again. That is why there is seeing a huge move into the haven assets over the last few minutes you can see it on this sort of German bonds have been being bought up. You see the euro moving, you see gold moving, you see everything moving, because there's a lot of uncertainty as to what this means Again, when we think about the possible red lines in Ukraine and when they are drawn. This sort of goes back to what we've been hearing from Olaf Scholz, who has been much more reticent for one to support any of these strikes within Russia, presumably to try to avoid a situation that could escalate severely.

Speaker 1: 4:21

Yeah, obviously this situation can escalate. This is this is the United States is effectively attacking Russia. I want you to understand the difference between the United States giving money to Ukraine, then the United States going here's this intercontinental ballistic missile, here you go, take our weapon and launch it on our behalf, and we are a nuclear power and launch it on our behalf, and we are a nuclear power. So there's something called mutually assured destruction, which is kind of a treaty between all nuclear powers that they know that once one nuclear power launches a missile, everybody's going to launch their missiles and the world is going to end.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Essentially, the United States has no business giving weapons to Ukraine to use against Russia to kill its own people. The United States had no business trying to push Ukraine into NATO. If the United States and the Biden administration did not try to fast-track Ukraine into NATO, putin would have never invaded and we would have completely avoided this entire conflict. But now we're on the verge of nuclear war because Joe Biden is completely incompetent. The only saving grace we have is that hopefully they will hold out until January 20th, until Donald Trump gets in office, and hopefully we can put this conflict to rest.