Military expert Dmitry Kornev noted that the Russian army is holding strategic nuclear forces exercises for the first time while Russian President Vladimir Putin is not in Moscow.

According to Kornev, the drills demonstrate the operation of the entire nuclear triad in conditions where the supreme commander-in-chief is outside the capital, as Putin is currently in China.

In his view, Moscow is showing that an order to use nuclear weapons can be issued not only from the capital, but also from an aircraft or even from abroad.

Kornev also drew attention to Belarus’ participation in the maneuvers. He believes this is Moscow’s response to the Western Nuclear Sharing model, under which NATO nuclear weapons are deployed on the territory of allied countries.

At the same time, the expert rejected the idea that the exercises were a reaction to remarks by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys about NATO having the means to strike Russian military infrastructure in the Kaliningrad region. Kornev said the strategic nuclear forces drills had been planned in advance.

He also noted another important circumstance: these are the first maneuvers of this kind since the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. According to Kornev, Moscow and Washington no longer have any bilateral agreements regulating nuclear weapons.