Nuclear weapons are complete madness

Earlier this week, President Vladimir Putin gave a rare interview to Bloomberg.

Among other things, he talked about the (im)possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons:

“I think all sober-minded people who really are involved in politics understand that the idea of a Russian threat to, for example, the Baltics is complete madness. (…) Yes, we’re the biggest nuclear power. But do you really think that we’re about to conquer the Baltics using nuclear weapons? What is this madness?”

Contradictory statements as reflexive control?
This quote was quickly picked up – and compared to another statement of the Russian President from last March.

Putin then said that he was prepared to use nuclear weapons in case anyone would militarily oppose the Russian illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. CNN’s report of an interview with President Putin in March 2015 reads:

“Asked if Russia was prepared to bring its nuclear weapons into play, Putin said: “We were ready to do it. I talked with colleagues and told them that this (Crimea) is our historic territory, Russian people live there, they are in danger, we cannot leave them.”

Following the Bloomberg interview, Lithuanian academic and disinformation analyst Nerijus Maliukevičius turned to Facebook to provide some background reading about a Russian technique called “reflexive control”, which is intended to “interfere with the decision-making process of an enemy commander” (see Timothy Thomas).