RIO DE JANEIRO, November 19. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he expected the West to pore over Russia's entire updated nuclear doctrine.
"We have the foundations of the nuclear doctrine officially published now. Everything is confirmed there. What the president [of Russia Vladimir Putin] announced publicly a month or so back is already enshrined in law. And I hope that they [in the West] will read this doctrine. And not how they read the UN Charter, seeing there only what they need, but the doctrine in its entirety and interconnectedness," he said at a news conference following a Group of G20 summit.
According to Lavrov, he was asked on the sidelines of the summit whether reports that the US had allegedly authorized deeper strikes inside Russia with its long-range weapons were true.
"I replied: I don't know whether it is true or not true. We are in the business of ensuring our own security. We have said everything that those who are thinking about it need to know. We have said it officially. The president said it, and now we have already enshrined it in an official document," the minister said.
On November 17, the New York Times reported, citing sources, that US President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols later confirmed this information. Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell said some EU countries also authorized the use of their weapons for deeper strikes inside Russia.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine stipulates a potential nuclear strike in response to Ukraine’s use of Western-made conventional missiles against Russia. Earlier, he described the West’s latest decision as a "qualitatively new" round of escalation.