Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 21 accused Western powers of engaging in nuclear blackmail and put his country onto an enhanced wartime footing, ordering a partial military mobilization and vowing to use “all means available” in the event of a threat against Russia and its people.
Putin made the remarks in a televised address, in which he said that some high-ranking representatives of Western powers had expressed “the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia,” according to a translation of his remarks by The Scotsman.