Biden cites Cuban Missile Crisis in describing Putin’s nuclear threat

NEW YORK, Oct 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden stated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to make use of nuclear weapons threatens to convey in regards to the greatest such danger for the reason that Cuban Missile Crisis, including Washington was “trying to figure out” Putin’s off-ramp.

The White House has stated repeatedly that it has seen no indication that Russia is getting ready to make use of nuclear weapons in regardless of what it calls Putin’s “nuclear saber-rattling.”

But Biden on Thursday made clear he was holding a cautious eye on Putin and the way he would possibly react as Ukraine’s navy makes positive aspects in opposition to Russian invaders.

“For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat to the use of nuclear weapons, if in fact things continue down the path they’d been going,” Biden advised Democratic donors in New York.

He additionally stated, “we have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis.”

In the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States underneath President John Kennedy and Soviet Union underneath its chief, Nikita Khrushchev, got here near using nuclear weapons over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

Putin, stated Biden, is “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is, you might say, is significantly underperforming.”

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” Biden stated.

Biden stated he and U.S. officers are trying to find a diplomatic off-ramp.

“We’re trying to figure out what is Putin’s off-ramp…Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position he does not, not only lose face but lose significant power in Russia,” Biden stated.

Biden spoke on the New York house of businessman James Murdoch, turning to the son of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch to attempt to increase his get together’s probabilities in Nov. 8 congressional elections.

The occasion at Murdoch’s house was to profit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is offering assist for Democratic candidates for the Senate.

Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; Editing by Lincoln Feast

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