Vladimir Putin has been captured smirking at the prospect of sending everyone “to heaven” in a nuclear armageddon.
On Friday night, the Russian leader was asked to dispel fears of an imminent nuclear war to an audience at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, but opted instead to joke about the possibility.
Host Fyodor Lukyanov said: “Last year, when the nuclear factor somehow emerged in the spring, and so you pointed out its presence, a lot of people got a little nervous remembering your statement here at our event four years ago that we would all go to heaven.
“We aren’t in a hurry, are we?” the host asked, followed by a smattering of laughter from the audience.
Mr Putin then leaned into the microphone, but said nothing. Breaking the sustained silence, Mr Lukyanov said: “You have been thinking for a while; it’s already alarming somehow.”
The Russian leader then smirked, and said: “I have purposely thought about it to make you wary.” Mr Putin then began to chuckle to himself, before adding: “The effect is achieved.”
The Valdai Discussion Club is a think tank based in Moscow with close links to the Russian president. Since it was founded in 2004, Mr Putin has met with its participants each year to discuss and deliver “a qualified and objective assessment of global political and economic issues”, according to its website.
Mr Putin started his speech just after 3pm on Thursday. Almost immediately, it descended into a bitter diatribe against the “arrogant” West, which he accused of trying to dictate its terms to other nations in a “dangerous and bloody” game of domination.
The Russian leader took a series of questions following his address, during which attention turned to the matter of nuclear weapons.
The president argued that the West was using the rhetoric of nuclear war as a weapon against Russia. He said that “building tensions about the very notion of Russia using nuclear weapons” has an “impact on [Russia’s] allies”.
“We’ve never said anything proactively about possible use of nuclear weapons by Russia. We have only hinted in response to the statements those Western leaders have made,” he insisted.
At one point, he turned on the recent British prime minister Liz Truss, calling her “crazy” for speaking about the idea of Russia using nuclear weapons.
Mr Putin also reiterated a baseless claim made by Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu that Kyiv has the technology to create and potentially detonate a “dirty bomb” in Ukraine.
