Putin also accused the West of instigating other conflicts. “If it is a direct attack on the Russian Federation, in this case we are talking about Kaliningrad, but possibly other territories, of course, the question of the use by the Russian Federation of all weapons at the disposal of our country will inevitably and immediately be on the agenda,” he said. He accused NATO of conducting naval maneuvers in the Baltic Sea that he said posed serious threats to Kaliningrad. If the territory were to come under a Western blockade, he said, Russia would be willing to use all means and forces, including nuclear. “We are not threatening anyone. We do not intend to attack anyone in 2029, in 2030, in 2050. But if we encounter aggression, we will have to respond. Citizens of European countries must be fully aware of this.” He added that while he was aware of the nuclear capabilities of countries such as the United Kingdom and France, the weapons at their disposal were unparalleled. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte made clear on Wednesday that none of the alliance’s “exercises or activities” posed any threat to Moscow and that the Kremlin’s messages were “absolutely neither necessary nor useful.” Putin spent some time talking about how the world’s major countries have weapons at their disposal that could “end all life or at least push the Earth to catastrophic consequences,” and said that unfortunately no one could be sure they would never be used. He drew the analogy of a gun placed on a theater stage – if it were hanging there at the beginning of the show, it would surely fire at the end. He appeared to call for the rules of war to be rewritten and warned of the growing risk of artificial intelligence. “The automation and digitalization of war leads to its gamification. This leads to the degradation and regression of humanity towards barbarism,” he stated.
