One may find Russia’s handling of the nuclear weapons issue absurd. The latest twist: Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has accused Ukraine of planning to detonate a “dirty bomb,” a conventional explosive device that spreads radioactive material when detonated. Ukraine then wants to blame Russia for this bomb.
Experts see this narrative as a possible sign that Russia is actually planning such an attack and wants to sow doubts about the authorship in advance. The warning can therefore also be understood as a nuclear threat from Moscow. It is not the first in this conflict. This saber-rattling is a danger, even if Putin doesn’t take it seriously.
First of all, of course, these threats are a play on fear. In fact, the alleged danger of nuclear war is also a main argument for all those in the Federal Republican debate who oppose Berlin’s powerful support for Ukraine. We should not give in to this fear, otherwise we will grant any nuclear dictatorship the right to push boundaries and subjugate people at will. But at the same time this constant threat must not lead to an inflation of fear, to habituation.
The use of nuclear weapons is still subject to a moral taboo. The memory of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is kept alive out of the conviction that war should never be waged in this way. Because it is mainly innocent people who suffer from these weapons and this for generations. This taboo erodes as our fear of nuclear weapons erodes.
Just as constantly dealing with the advances in Iran’s nuclear program might lead us to come to terms with the threat of a nuclear-capable Iran. It is actually already a reality, but the Western public doesn’t seem to care much about that. A number of other countries are already in the starting blocks to catch up with Tehran. But if one day nuclear weapons are normal, then so will their use. We should be afraid of that and we should do something about it.
