Putin and Lavrov have been engaged in nuclear blackmail for 15 years already, and such actions gave them the desired result for a long time. The mood in the world was unequivocal: no one wanted to mess with crazy people who could use nuclear weapons.

Andrey Piontkovsky, a Russian publicist, told Channel 24 about this. He also noted that for the same reasons, Ukraine was not admitted to NATO for a long time and the reaction of the civilized world to the annexation of Crimea was weak.

“But now it’s completely different times, the Americans are tired of giving in endlessly. At the highest level of the United States, including Biden’s statements, they made it clear to Putin that if he uses nuclear weapons, he will get his own,” Piontkovsky notes.

"As far as I can analyze what is discussed in the American press, the United States has already developed a clear protocol for responding to the possible use of nuclear weapons by Russia," he adds.

According to the publicist, this answer will not be nuclear, but conventional because the nuclear strike itself does not make sense from a military point of view.

If Russia uses nuclear weapons, then within half an hour, all NATO forces can destroy the entire Black Sea fleet of Russia, and within a few days, NATO forces can destroy all Russians with weapons on the territory of Ukraine.

"You need to understand that the West is ready for such a response," Piontkovsky sums up.