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By Xander Landen
Weekend Staff Writer
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As Russia has ramped up nuclear threats in recent days, retired General Mark Hertling said Thursday that with a leader like Russian President Vladimir Putin, "you don't know what he's going to do next, and you can't counter that until it happens."
Hertling's comments came after Putin said in late September that Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons amid the war in Ukraine if it feels its "territorial integrity is threatened." The Russian president stressed his remarks were "not a bluff."
This week, President Joe Biden said Putin is "not joking" about his threats to use nuclear weapons, warning such a response could result in Armageddon.
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Appearing on CNN International, host Michael Holmes asked Hertling: "How much of a wild card is someone like Putin, especially when cornered?"
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"The decision-maker is the wild card," Hertling responded. "You can address the potential ways to react and to counter any kind of moves by an enemy force. What you don't always know is what is in the mind of the individual making the decision."
Hertling added that in Putin's case, his army "has practiced the use of nuclear weapons."
"When you have an individual, like a Mr. Putin, who has already made some really bad decisions in this conflict, and who has failed in every strategic objective he has attempted to reach, you don't know what he's going to do next and you can't counter that until it happens," Hertling added.
In recent weeks, Putin has faced major losses on the battlefield. On Saturday, Russian troops had to withdraw from the city of Lyman after the Ukrainian military encircled the area. The setback came just a day after Putin announced that Russia was illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine: Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, where Lyman is located.
In an interview with Newsweek on Friday, Javed Ali, an associate professor of practice at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, said he believes the odds that Putin will use nuclear weapons are "extremely low" because "the consequences for Russia would be so significant."
"Even a single use of a tactical nuclear weapon to achieve some effect in eastern Ukraine—would it be effective? Yes. But would it lead to a much, much more severe set of consequences for Russia? I think the answer to that is yes," Ali said.
"My take on the rhetoric coming from Putin is that it's just that," Ali added. "He's trying to bluster his way out of this mess that he's created for himself, at some level."
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment.
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