Prominent Russian thinker suggests Moscow should test nuclear bomb to deter West

In May 2024, Dmitry Suslo, a high-ranking member of an important think tank in Russia floated the idea that Moscow needed to test a nuclear weapon for a very specific reason.

Suslo believed exploding a nuclear weapon would remind Western nations of Russia's vast nuclear potential and said it could serve as a toll to deter Ukraine's allies from allowing Kyiv to use long-range missiles on Russia.

In light of Joe Biden's recently reported approval for Ukrainian use of U.S. long-range weapons inside Russian territory, something France and the UK have also now allowed, Suslo's comments seem more worrying than ever. Let's take a look at who Sulso is in Russia and what he proposed. 

Suslov is Deputy Director of the Moscow-based Council for Foreign and Defence Policy think tank and he proposed that Russia should consider using what he termed a “demonstrative” nuclear explosion to deter the West from giving Ukraine more assistance and weapons.  

Reuters was the first news organization to report on Suslov’s suggestion and noted that his comments came just one day after Vladimir Putin warned the U.S. and Europe were playing with fire when it came to allowing Ukraine to strike Russia. 

Suslov praised Putin but also said that Russia needed to act to deter Western countries from crossing the Kremlin’s red lines, which is why he came out and said Moscow must consider using a nuclear weapon in a demonstrative capacity. 

"To confirm the seriousness of Russia's intentions and to convince our opponents of Moscow's readiness to escalate,” it is worth considering a demonstrative (i.e. non-combat) nuclear explosion," Suslov explained in the business magazine ‘Profil’, which was translated by Reuters. 

"The political and psychological effect of a nuclear mushroom cloud, which will be shown live on all TV channels around the world, will hopefully remind Western politicians of the one thing that has prevented wars between the great powers since 1945 and that they have now largely lost - fear of nuclear war,” Suslov added. 

Reuters noted Suslov was just one of a number of Russian security experts and lawmakers who had come out in favor of Russia testing a nuclear bomb to deter Western help for Ukraine at that time in the war. But could Russia test a nuclear weapon today?

On May 6th, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Moscow would be holding a series of tactical nuclear drills ordered by Vladimir Putin according to BBC News, but drills are not equivalent to a real explosion of a nuclear bomb. 

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) has banned all nuclear explosions on the planet since 1996 according to the Arms Control Association. Russia is one of the 187 signatories of the treaty and ratified it in 2000. 

However, tensions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine led Putin to revoke the ratification of the CTBT in Russia in November 2023, citing that Moscow wanted to achieve parity with the United States, which has not ratified the treaty since signing it. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to Putin’s move at the time by stating that the United States was “deeply concerned by Russia’s planned action to withdraw its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.”

“Russian officials say Russia’s planned move to withdraw its ratification does not mean that it will resume testing, and we urge Moscow to hold to those statements,” Blinken went on to explain in his statement, though how Washington would react is unclear. 

In February 2023, Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the NEW START treaty with the United States but said Moscow had no plans to be the first to test a nuclear weapon although Russia would do so if the United States tested one first according to CNN.

Whether or not Putin and the Kremlin will ultimately take up Dmitry Suslov’s proposal to test a nuclear weapon to deter the West from crossing Russian red lines seems like a moot point after the West's decision to allow Kyiv to use long-range weapons inside Russian territory. But such a move could still be played by Putin and the Kremlin to deter the West. 

There is currently nothing stopping Putin from testing a nuclear weapon, and if he did, such a test would serve as a powerful symbol of the wrong direction the world is moving. It may even force American and European leaders to rethink their support for Ukraine. 

Suslov also suggested Russia should initiate strategic nuclear exercises and warn any country that allowed Ukraine to use its weapons on Russia, that Moscow reserved the right to strike that country’s targets anywhere in the world, and that Russia could use its nuclear weapons on any country that with conventional weapons according to Reuters.

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