Putin could use 'tactical nukes' in 'win-win' scenario against NATO, warns expert

Vladimir Putin will try to "blackmail" Nato by using small-scale tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield to test the alliance's resolve, one expert has warned.

Today, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg revealed the bloc is currently engaged in talks on whether to put its nuclear arsenal on standby to curb the rising threats from Russia and China. The concerns have been raised a day before Putin is set to cosy up with another enemy of the West. Tomorrow, he'll visit North Korea, where Kim Jong Un is still working on long-range missile capabilites that would put the US within his range.

Stoltenberg, who rose to the top spot a decade ago, recalled the time when Nato would conduct its nuclear exercises in secret - but is pushing for even more transparency to show the Kremlin exactly what it's capable of.

Professor Anthony Glees, a renowned expert in global security and intelligence matters, believes that Putin needs to understand that if he uses smaller scale tactical nuclear weapons, Nato "would retaliate" because "we in NATO are in deadly earnest in our determination to see Russia driven out of Ukraine and Crimea".

But if the alliance did so, it could be falling right into Putin's plan. He's trying to "blackmail" the bloc into flexing its muscles, with the resulting fallout a "win-win" for the tyrant, he adds.

Putin is currently cosying up to Kim Jong Un, another of the West's enemies

The tactical nuclear weapon is a horrendous weapon of war, but can only impact a small geographical location. It's designed to lay waste to enemy targets inside a specific area without causing radioactive destruction.

Speaking to The Mirror, the University of Buckingham professor explained: "Putin reckons that he can probably win a conventional war, even if it takes years. [..] if he doesn't think he's winning this way, he will try winning another way, by resorting to the use of 'tactical' small-scale nuclear weapons on the battlefield.

"This is Putin's win-win scenario. Another word for it is 'Blackmail'. But from now until the US Elections in November, there's not a snowball's chance in hell that NATO will let itself be blackmailed.

"This is why NATO is so right to convince Putin he will not defeat Ukraine and that we will take him and his regime out for once and for all at the first warning that he's about launch nuclear weapons in Ukraine. He has talked himself and his people into a situation of extreme danger for them."

"We must always bear in mind that Putin remains, in his cold and vicious heart, the calculating, poker-playing KGB officer he once was. His is the skillset of the KGB: using the threat of violence and, if needs be, violence itself to bully his enemy into submission."