Putin’s three nuclear speeches – an interpretation

During the Fall Crisis of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered three main speeches containing explicit or thinly veiled nuclear threats. A detailed interpretation of the three speeches reveals significant differences, particularly as regards their potential to be treated as nuclear threats. His first speech in September delivered the most explicit nuclear threat of the war. His second speech, nine days later, though widely interpreted as conveying another nuclear threat, did not threaten possible Russian use of nuclear weapons. Putin’s speech in late October, finally, can be interpreted as backtracking from earlier threats. With the successful Russian retreat from Kherson, there was no plausible need for Putin to authorise nuclear detonations. A close reading of the three speeches reveals that not every nuclear insinuation should be treated as a threat.