Senior Fellow Peter Huessy joined The John Batchelor Show to discuss Vladimir Putin’s use of nuclear threats as an instrument of coercion, and the U.S. extended deterrence that answers it.
Nuclear Deterrence and Russian Coercive Threats
The John Batchelor Show · 15 September 2026 · Subscribe
On The John Batchelor Show, Peter Huessy examines Vladimir Putin’s routine use of nuclear threats as weapons of blackmail, coercion, and “reflexive control” to deter NATO involvement in Ukraine. Grounded in a 1999 decree authorizing low-yield tactical nuclear weapons, Putin’s rhetoric treats nuclear employment as a political instrument despite the catastrophic economic and human consequences of any nuclear detonation. Huessy emphasizes that nuclear use constitutes criminality rather than strategy. To counter Russian coercion, the U.S. maintains strong extended nuclear deterrence through visible bomber deployments in allied nations and modernizing sea-launched cruise missile systems to ensure long-term stability.
Peter Huessy is a Senior Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a Washington D.C. based foreign policy and defense think tank.
