On February 28, deputy director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Matthew Kroenig was quoted in an article in the Irish Times titled “West takes seriously Putin’s nuclear weapon threat.” Kroenig asserts that Putin’s heighten nuclear alert is textbook Russian strategy and likely a bluff.
This [Putin’s nuclear alert] really is Russia’s military strategy to backstop conventional aggression with nuclear threats, or what is known as the ‘escalate to de-escalate strategy’.
Matthew Kroenig
Forward Defense develops and shapes policy solutions that build US military power to deter war and secure the future.