US 'could assassinate Putin if he fires nuclear weapons', former US national security adviser John Bolton says
11 October 2022, 18:54 | Updated: 11 October 2022, 19:16
The US could assassinate Vladimir Putin if Russia fires nuclear weapons at Ukraine, former US national security adviser John Bolton has said.
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Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC on Tuesday, Mr Bolton said that nuclear strikes by Russia would be a "suicide note" for Russian president Putin, although he did not say the US reaction would come straight after any bombs were dropped.
Andrew Marr speaks to former US national security adviser John Bolton
Mr Bolton said: "I think one thing that's important before we get to that stage is to increase our efforts to deter him from thinking about it. Putin has bluffed about the use of nuclear weapons before every indication so far is that the current talk is also a bluff.
"But I don't rule out the possibility of nuclear weapons if Russian forces in Ukraine collapsed, or if Putin found himself in really dire straits, politically inside Russia.
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"And we need to make it clear to him and we need to make it clear to the people around him in his government, so that they can take action before he does anything like that.
"But we need to make clear if Putin were to order the use of a tactical nuclear weapon, he would be signing a suicide note. And I think, I think that's what it may take to deter him. If he gets into extreme circumstances."
Ukraine has been rocked by Russian strikes on several cities over the past two days, with at least 19 people killed. Leaders of the G7 groups of rich countries said on Tuesday that they would support Ukraine for as long as it takes, with Nato also pledging continued backing for Kyiv.
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Pressed by Andrew on what he meant by a "suicide note", Mr Bolton said: "We cannot allow the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine or anywhere else from terrorists like Iran, or North Korea, as well as from Russia or China, without the person who was responsible for that decision being held accountable.
"There are a lot of proposals for destruction of Russian forces inside Ukraine, the Black Sea Fleet and the like, if Russia were to use a nuclear weapon, I don't have any objection to that...
"And I think by making it clear, we will levy responsibility on the person who makes that order. That increases the chance of deterring that person from doing it in the first place."
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Mr Bolton added that an assassination "would [not] necessarily happen the next day.
"But I think the point is to make it clear to Putin that this is not a free decision on his part. We know who would be responsible for the use of nuclear weapons. We know it would be him and he will be held accountable."
"Asked if I don't agree that we can't get him. And I think he knows that you can ask Qasem Soleimani in Iran, what happens when we just saw somebody is a threat to the United States." The US assassinated Mr Soleimani, a Iranian military leader, in early 2020.
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Mr Bolton continued: "But the point here is not just for Putin, but for everybody else to say, this is the wrong road to go down."
Mr Bolton, a former advocate for the war in Iraq who served under several presidents, including George W. Bush and Donald Trump, said that the US and NATO should be giving more military support to Ukraine in its war with Russia.
"I think it's been clear for some time that Russia's military performance on the battlefield has been extraordinarily poor," he said. "Ukrainians have fought very well, we've given them considerable assistance.
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"But the fact is, Russia's military has not been anything like what our Western intelligence services believed. And yet I think collectively, NATO has not provided the level of assistance the Ukrainians really need certainly not provided at the right time.
"This is not the time to back away, it's not the time to talk about negotiations with Putin, his own domestic political difficulties are rising. Ultimately, I don't see how the West can deal with a Putin government when this war is over.
"But the main point is to show that contrary to all expectations, Ukraine can actually prevail militarily in this, there's still a long way to go."
