A rare footage was shown on Wednesday of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing accompanied by officers carrying the so-called nuclear briefcase, which can be used to order a nuclear strike. After a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Putin was filmed walking to another meeting surrounded by security and followed by two Russian naval officers in uniform carrying a briefcase. The camera zooms in on one of the briefcases, Reuters reports. The briefcase contains all the information a president needs to order a nuclear strike if they are away from command centers, such as a code to launch a missile or a computer that would send a remote control signal to launch a rocket.
It is always with the president but is rarely filmed as it is considered sensitive. It was a stark reminder of Russia’s threat to use its nuclear weapons should it feel threatened. The footage was posted on the Telegram messaging app by Kremlin correspondents of state news agency RIA, and it has been viewed more than 10 million times since.
Putin was attending the second day of a summit between Russia and China to showcase their “no-limits” relationship. The visit was also a chance to boost trade between the world’s largest economies. China’s Xi praised the relationship as the “compass and anchor” of global development. This statement did not mention the war in Ukraine or the fact that he was hosting a leader the International Criminal Court wanted for war crimes.
During the summit, the leaders of Kazakhstan and Indonesia also spoke, calling for more excellent global development and multilateral cooperation. However, much of the Chinese media coverage was dedicated to the “no-limits” partnership between Putin and Xi. Many pieces plastered the top of the online masthead for Xinhua and other state-run media outlets and did not mention that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged war crimes.
The leaders’ meeting was also a chance for Putin to pitch his vision of a world without hegemony by the West and instead one with China as its dominant force. He has been promoting this vision to the countries he has visited over the past decade as he looks to expand his country’s global reach vastly.
It is doubtful that he will give up his efforts to create such a world anytime soon, especially with his close ties with Xi and the vast amounts of money he has invested in foreign policy to promote this vision. This is why the West and others must continue to impose sanctions on Russia, even if they have been weakened due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This will help to stifle Putin’s attempts to destabilize the region. It will also pressure the elites to take Putin’s nuclear threats seriously and rethink their support of the president.
