Russia's cold war tactics: Secret documents reveal nuclear strategies

The British daily "Financial Times" has obtained secret documents. They indicate that Russia had trained its navy to target nuclear missiles at deep locations in Europe in the event of a potential conflict with NATO.

According to the newspaper, the presentation for officers occurred before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It detailed 32 targets, including distant locations such as the western coast of France and Barrow-in-Furness, a town in north-western England with a shipyard where British warships are built. However, the maps were prepared for presentation purposes, not operational ones.

The "Financial Times" notes that the latest reports illustrate how Russia envisioned a conflict with the West extending far beyond NATO's immediate border, planning a series of possible strikes in Western Europe.

Documents compiled between 2008 and 2014 include a list of targets for missiles that can carry conventional warheads or tactical nuclear weapons. Russian officers emphasise the benefits of conducting nuclear attacks in the early phase of a conflict.

The documents noted that the Russian navy's "high manoeuvrability" allows it to carry out "sudden and pre-emptive blows" and "massive missile strikes . . . from various directions." They added that nuclear weapons are "as a rule" intended for use "in combination with other means of destruction" to achieve Russia's objectives. The records state that Russia's main priority in a conflict with NATO is "weakening the enemy's military and economic potential."

The presentation also mentions the so-called demonstrative strike – detonating a nuclear weapon in a remote area "during a period of imminent threat of aggression" before actual conflict to intimidate Western countries. Russia has so far not admitted that such strikes are part of its doctrine. According to the documents, such a strike would show "the availability and readiness for use of precision non-strategic nuclear weapons" and the "intention to use nuclear weapons."

The documents also indicate that Russia has retained the capability to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on surface ships, despite a 1991 agreement between the Soviet Union and the USA to remove them from such vessels.

Analysts cited by the "FT" who reviewed the documents said that these reports are consistent with NATO’s assessment of the potential threat of long-range missile attacks by the Russian navy. They also point to the speed with which Russia would likely resort to using nuclear weapons. Experts added that if the Russian military engaged NATO forces in frontline countries such as the Baltic states and Poland, targets across the continent would be at risk.

William Alberque, a former NATO official now working at the Stimson Center think tank, said that the 32 described targets are a fraction of "hundreds, if not thousands, of targets mapped across Europe . . . including military and critical infrastructure targets."

- Their concept of war is total war. They see these things [tactical nuclear warheads] as potentially war-winning weapons. They’re going to want to use them, and they’re going to want to use them pretty quickly - said Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, who studies arms control.

Dara Massicot, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that Russian strategists partly see nuclear weapons as crucial in the early stages of a conflict with NATO due to weaker conventional military resources. - They just don't have enough missiles - she explained.

The "FT" reminds us that tactical nuclear weapons, which can be deployed via missiles launched from land or sea, or from aircraft, have a shorter range and are less destructive than larger "strategic" weapons intended for attacking the U.S. but can still release significantly more energy than the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945.