There has been an an alarming rise in nuclear threats on Kremlin-controlled state TV, a leading Russian independent editor and Nobel prize winner has warned.
Dmitry Muratov's claim came as the head of Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin alleged Vladimir Putin is being told "monstrous" lies by his military chiefs over Russia's "colossal problems" in its resistance to Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
"Over the last two weeks, Russian TV has said 200 times that use of nuclear weapons was possible, and how [exactly it was possible]", revealed Muratov, editor-in-chief of independent investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, a title forced into exile by Putin’s repression.
He continued: "Two hundred times. In two weeks. It is beginning to look like a dog food ad."
He asked: “Will Vladimir Putin press the button, or will he not? None of us know.”
Alluding to a comedy novel by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, he asked: “Will we have a chance, as Soldier Schweik used to say, to meet 6 o’clock in the evening after the war?
"When will this ‘after’ come, and will we have this opportunity?
"But let’s live this remaining time as human beings."
Muratov spoke as Putin threatened the West with the imminent deployment of his Satan-2 big-beast 208-ton nuclear 15,880 mph apocalypse rocket which Kremlin propagandists say could sink Britain under a giant wave.
Putin says he has already deployed tactical nuclear weapons close to NATO on the territory of his landlocked neighbour Belarus.
Separately, political scientist Professor Sergei Karaganov - close to Putin - called for the use of nuclear weapons to smash “the will of the West" in supporting Ukraine.
Russian MP Andrey Lugovoy has demanded the Kremlin be ready to use strategic nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Another loyalist MP and reservist Lietenant-General Andrey Gurulev told state TV channel Rossiya 1: "You guys [the West] will get a nuclear strike on your heads. We shouldn’t be scared of it."
Hardline pro-Putin MP Oleg Nilov said tactical nuclear weapons "won’t stay shelved for too long".
Muratov claimed Russia was deeply divided over the war, with young people mainly opposed.
"I can tell you the figures: about 80 per cent of people under the age of 35 are against the special military operation, they want peace as soon as possible. But about the same number of elderly people demand victory,” he said.
Meanwhile, Prigozhin raged that Putin is told “lies” by his top war strategists, defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the Army staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov.
“Complete bull**** is brought to the president’s desk,” he said.
“Unscrupulous bull****.”
On fighting the counter-offensive, he said: “There are colossal problems.
“Shoigu and Gerasimov have a simple approach - lies should be monstrous to be believed. This is what they’re doing.”
He hit out at Putin who claimed Russia had wiped out “245 tanks of the enemy and 678 armoured vehicles” in Ukraine, suggesting the claim was false.
