President Joe Biden’s administration warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to launch an anti-satellite nuclear weapon into space, according to reports.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the administration pressured the Kremlin and urged other nations to do the same.
Reports said top Biden officials also reached out to their counterparts in the Russian government.
Part of the plan also included insulting Putin, which Biden did on Wednesday when he called the Russian leader a “crazy SOB” who “we always have to be worried about” when it comes to “a nuclear conflict.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) recently warned that a foreign adversary was working on creating a “destabilizing” weapon, urging Biden to declassify the intelligence surrounding the weapon.
Reports added that the potential weapon would be used to knock out satellites critical to U.S. national security.
The Daily Wire reported:
“Turner said that one of the reasons he brought the matter to the public’s attention was that he believed they were hiding their own inaction on the matter, and he did not want to see the U.S. slow-walked into another national crisis under Biden.
However, after meeting with top administration officials, including Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Turner walked away saying that he was confident in what the administration was doing.”
“We all came away with a very strong impression that the administration is taking this very seriously and that the administration has a plan in place,” Turner said.
However, Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu denied they were looking to launch a nuclear space weapon.
“Our position is clear and transparent: We have always been categorically against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space and we are still against it,” Putin claimed.
Forbes reported:
A nuclear weapon launched into space would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, a United Nations resolution Russia signed that prohibits countries from placing nuclear weapons or similar “weapons of mass destruction” into orbit, on the moon or on any other celestial body. Violating the treaty could result in sanctions from other countries, Business Insider reported, potentially adding to a slew of sanctions Moscow has faced since invading Ukraine two years ago.
Steven Andreasen, a nuclear analyst with the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, told the New York Times that the treaty is one of several Russia could likely exit, including the New START treaty that limits nuclear weapons, which expires in February 2026.
By exiting the Outer Space Treaty and letting the New START treaty expire, Russia “could open the floodgates for other countries to put nuclear weapons in space,” adding that by launching nuclear weapons into space, “you can use them for more than taking out satellites.”
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