File: In an image from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on October 26, 2022, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is test-fired as part of Russia's nuclear drills from a launch site in Plesetsk, northwestern Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)
A former head of IDF military intelligence warns of the potential for Russian nuclear weapons to fall into rogue and dangerous hands given the chaos in Russia.
When the Soviet Union fell apart, the US and the new Russian government worked together to prevent nuclear missiles from falling into rogue hands, Amos Yadlin tells Channel 12. “Russia has 6,000 nuclear warheads,” he notes, and the West has no capacity to deal with the potential danger of “nuclear weapons proliferation” if Russia collapses, he says.
He warns that Russian nuclear scientists could help Iran with its nuclear drive, crossing the only red line that Putin maintained as he warmed relations with Tehran and supplied the ayatollahs with combat aircraft and air defense systems. “There’s a great fear” of that changing, says Yadlin.
Amos Yadlin (Flash90)
Moscow under Putin “had one line,” he says. It did not help Iran with its “nuclear weapons development program.”
Ultimately, stresses Yadlin, it wouldn’t be smart to be “too happy if Putin falls. Whoever replaces him might not be more moderate.”
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