Cold War tensions reheating

Vladimir Putin’s boasts about what he claims is Russia’s rapidly advancing prowess in building a lethal new generation of nuclear weapons capable of evading the most sophisticated Western defences cannot be dismissed simply as bluster ahead of the Russian presidential election. It undoubtedly has an element of truth. Polls show Mr Putin has 80 per cent approval ahead of the March 18 vote but he wants an even bigger victory. Having learned from Donald Trump, he is mounting a last-minute “Make Russia Great Again” campaign. This was clear when he mourned the collapse of the old Soviet Union, saying that if he could change history it would be to restore the USSR.

Whether or not Mr Putin is building the advanced nuclear arsenal he claims is a vital issue for the free world. US scientists estimate Russia has 4300 nuclear warheads, so any expansion of that capability, especially with weapons he claims can travel for thousands of kilometres undetected, would be deeply alarming.

Even without solid evidence, the belligerent tone of his annual address to the Russian Federal Assembly left no doubt that the West was facing a grave challenge. Mr Putin’s malevolence as he claimed the new generation of tactical nuclear weapons would penetrate any anti-missile defences was remarkable. So was the video depicting nuclear-armed cruise missiles soaring tens of thousands of kilometres over mountain peaks before skirting around Cape Horn and striking targets on the US West Coast. It was redolent of Kim Jong-un’s belligerence.

The wily Mr Putin is potentially a far greater threat. To his credit, Donald Trump has pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to modernise the US nuclear deterrent, in contrast with Barack Obama who cut the stockpile to its smallest size since the 1950s. Last month a US “nuclear posture review” set out urgent priorities for “the world as it is, not as we wish it to be”. This included new tactical nuclear weapons to counter a Russian threat. Mr Putin has raised the stakes. As he leads the free world, Mr Trump must realise the former KGB chief and Soviet spy boss in East Germany is no friend.