Vladimir Putin may threaten nuclear war but there is another country more like to spark Armageddon, claims a defence expert. Since
Russia ’s invasion of
Ukraine more than two years ago, the fear of a nuclear conflict has risen with tensions between Russia and the West at its highest point since the Cuban
missile Crisis in 1962. Russia is known to have the largest nuclear stockpile in the world - and Putin has threatened to use them. But Prof John Strawson told The Mirror that he does not see Russia as the main for causing a nuclear war as it is a “centralised” country with a clear power base in Putin and he knows that using a
bomb would be devastating for everyone. Instead he believes that a bigger threat comes from
Pakistan as it is a “far less stable country” and “we don’t know who is running it”. The professor of Law, Policing and Justice said: “I wouldn’t say Putin is looking for a nuclear conflict but the longer we go the more likely we are to have a nuclear conflict at some point and we are lucky not to have had one since 1945. “But Russia is a lot more cautious than Pakistan, I would predict it is more likely that Pakistan would use a nuclear bomb as it is a far less stable country. Russia is a centralised country but Pakistan is unstable, we don’t know who is running it, it is not very clear. Their position with the
Taliban was not very clear. With Russia they know that a nuclear war would be devastating for everyone on both sides and so the situation is more rational with forces avoiding the situation getting out of control.” Glossybox rival Lookfantastic with £40 beauty egg containing £49 Elemis anti-ageing cream Putin has made threats to use
nuclear weapons ( Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Prof Strawson also pointed to how Putin is now in a strong position in Russia. “Putin has shown himself able to recover from the shock of not overthrowing Ukraine straight away, he immediately recovered, saw off the Wagner threat and so in that sense he is clearly acting rationally. He has his own peculiar style and is very security conscious, he plays games with political elite,” he said. “His speech on February 24 was very clear his picture of the world and his play book.” And Prof Anthony Glees, of the University of Buckingham, also believes that it is not in Putin’s plan to start a nuclear war, but both are also clear that the
Russian leader does have ambitions on expansionism beyond Ukraine. “So in my opinion, Putin's conventional war against us and against
NATO which is his policy, stated time and time again, of reconstituting the strategic and geopolitical entity that was the Soviet Union before 1989, has already started, indeed it has been underway in the
UK for some time,” he said. “Putin's strategy is not to nuke us but to make us so labile and malleable that in effect we in the UK will dance to his tune. His tactics are to start with subversion, something he's been doing here in the UK for at least a decade. Russian money has softened up our political class, especially many in the Conservative party . Russia loathes the
European Union and in
Brexit Putin saw something that he thought would weaken both the UK and, importantly, the EU. He was dead right about this. “Remember Putin was a KGB officer, not a Red Army officer. His skill set is the skill set of the Soviet intelligence community, subversion and hollowing us out, softly softly if he can get away with it - he's furious with Ukraine in part because they didn't knuckle under as he thinks, with some justification, we in the UK and in
Germany and
France might do so. Arms would be a last resort and might not even be necessary. “So the initial stages of the new war with Russia will be about subversion and us remedying our well-established failure to act properly against Russian subversion in the past 15 years of so.” He continued: “Once the Russians feel that we have been sufficiently softened up (and it's not just us, they'll also prey on Germany and France in particular) Putin will tighten the screws even more. He will repeat his demands and begin with
MILITARY incursions and even assassinations. We should not forget what he did to Yushchencko. He's poisoned and killed for far too many years, as the good people of
Salisbury have learned to their cost. “He will also try to use cyber to take down our critical national infrastructure, either using the GRU or his chums in Russia from whom he maintains a certain distance, just in case we decide to take a chunk of his critical infrastructure. We don't want to however because we are anxious about poking a stick into the wasps' nest that is Russia.” He added: “Ballistic missiles? No siree, not if they are not necessary. I think he will try to do with conventional, non-nuclear forces.”