Marc Bennetts: How Putin is priming Russia for nuclear stand-off with the West
Marc Bennetts: How Putin is priming Russia for nuclear stand-off with the West Tuesday February 17 th , 2015 at 3:10 PM Comments On: Marc Bennetts: How Putin Is Priming Russia For Nuclear Stand-Off With The West 1 Share Earlier this month, as fighting raged in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian rebels and forces loyal to the Western-backed government in Kyiv, Dmitry Kiselyov, the pugnacious, middle-aged journalist who heads Russia’s main state news agency, gazed defiantly into a TV studio camera. “What is Russia preparing for?” he asked. As if in reply, the director cut to an ominous backdrop image of an intercontinental ballistic missile emerging from an underground launch silo. National Post Graphics CLICK TO ENLARGE: This graphic attempts to look at the number of immediately available nuclear weapons in the world; weapons that could at a very short notice — because that is the point — be used in a war. “During the era of political