Would the U.S. Kill Putin?

Dec. 29, 2022 (EIRNS)—In his interview with TASS on Dec. 26, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned against threats made by “anonymous Pentagon officials” of a “decapitation strike” aimed at assassinating Russian President Vladimir Putin. “However, Washington has outdone all others. Certain anonymous Pentagon officials actually threatened to launch a ‘decapitation strike’ against the Kremlin. In effect, they are threatening to eliminate the head of the Russian state. If some people are actually nurturing these ideas, they should think very carefully about the possible consequences of these plans.” Lavrov said.

Lavrov may well have been referring to a Sept. 29 Newsweek article by the discredited Pentagon leaker, William Arkin, entitled “Biden Thinks Non-Nuclear Threats Will Stop Putin. His Military Doesn’t.” The article is based on the false premise that the danger of nuclear war comes from Putin threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, which the U.S. must “deter.” According to Arkin, the Biden Administration and the Pentagon disagree over whether Putin can be “deterred” from using nuclear weapons by threats to devastate Russia by non-nuclear means. He quotes at least three unnamed U.S. officials to the effect that U.S. threats to “devastate” Russia by conventional means won’t “deter” Putin from using nuclear weapons if he chooses to do so.

Military sources told Arkin that there were subtle moves being made with regard to nuclear threats, including moving submarines and aircraft, and drilling B-52 bombers. But they stressed that “non-nuclear military options—the use of conventional weapons and special operations, as well as cyber and space attack—were front and center, including a decapitation strike to kill Putin in the heart of the Kremlin”!

To entertain the idea that killing the President of Russia could be an “alternative” to nuclear war is mind-boggling.

Lavrov also commented to TASS that the nuclear provocations are coming from the other side, citing both Liz Truss, the short-lived British Prime Minister who said last summer that she would have no problem pushing the nuclear button, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy going so far as to demand preventive nuclear strikes by NATO against Russia. “This, too, goes beyond acceptable boundaries,” Lavrov said.