Russia has threatened to target Denmark’s warships with nuclear weapons if the Scandinavian nation becomes a member of Nato’s missile defence shield. Russian ambassador to Denmark said a move towards better integration with the Western alliance would make it a “threat to Russia”, and that it would have to accept the consequences.
Mikhail Vanin told the told Jyllands-Posten newspaper: “I do not think that the Danes fully understand the consequences if Denmark joins the US-led missile defence shield. If that happens, Danish warships become targets for Russian nuclear missiles.”
Maybe now somebody will start paying attention. Russia makes threats of nuclear attacks pretty much every day now. As a philologist, I can tell you that words create reality. Saying “I will nuke you!” over and over again makes the probability of a nuclear attack soar. People soon get used to the idea that nuclear weaponry is not the horrifying force that, if unleashed, will destroy the planet (as the Cold War philosophy suggested) but something that can and should be used whenever you are mildly dissatisfied with something.
Cold War was enormously better than this because I can absolutely guarantee to you that the Soviet people were as terrified of a nuclear Holocaust as you were. The nuclear option was not really an option. Nobody suggested that nuclear weapons should be used. And nuclear strikes were definitely not a subject of light banter or regular, everyday way of addressing reality.
I know I’m turning into a bore, harping on this all the time, but I used to think that the danger of nuclear weapons was self-evident to everybody on the planet. But younger Russians don’t know anything about Hiroshima and have no idea what nuclear weapons are, really. Most people in Russia seem convinced that you can deliver nuclear strikes and not suffer any consequences. Nobody is educating them on the dangers.
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