Moscow ‘keeps in mind’ US readiness to use nuclear weapons, prepared for ‘countermeasures’

‘Russia has promised to take all necessary countermeasures to ensure its national security given recently-announced US plans to modernize its nuclear triad and hawkish statements on nuclear deterrence coming from Washington.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told American troops at Minot Air Force Base in South Dakota that the Pentagon has been seeking $108 billion over the next five years to upgrade the nation’s nuclear triad of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, ballistic submarines, and strategic bombers. He also announced that NATO is reviewing its “nuclear playbook” to deter potential “terrible attacks” by Russia.
“Across the Atlantic, we’re refreshing NATO’s nuclear playbook to better integrate conventional and nuclear deterrence to ensure we plan and train like we’d fight and to deter Russia from thinking it can benefit from nuclear use in a conflict with NATO, from trying to escalate to de-escalate, as some there call it,” Carter said on Monday.’
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