“Our nuclear weapons doctrine does not provide for a pre-emptive strike.... there is no provision for a pre-emptive strike in our nuclear weapons doctrine. Our concept is based on a reciprocal counter strike. We are prepared and will use nuclear weapons only when we know for certain that some potential aggressor is attacking Russia...Only when we know for certain – and this takes a few seconds to understand – that Russia is being attacked we will deliver a counter strike. This would be a reciprocal counter strike. Why do I say ‘counter’? Because we will counter missiles flying towards us by sending a missile in the direction of an aggressor. Of course, this amounts to a global catastrophe but I would like to repeat that we cannot be the initiators of such a catastrophe... any aggressor should know that retaliation is inevitable and they will be annihilated. And we as the victims of an aggression, we as martyrs would go to paradise while they will simply perish because they won’t even have time to repent their sins.”

— Vladimir Putin

2016 - 2020, Valdai Discussion Club: 15th Plenary Session (18 October 2018)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Vladimir Putin 110

President of Russia, former Prime Minister 1952

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“Clearly, language threatening to wipe a nation or a group of people off the map is to be condemned by all civilized people. And I do condemn any such language. But why does threatening Iran with a pre-emptive nuclear strike, as many here have done, not also deserve the same kind of condemnation? Does anyone believe that dropping nuclear weapons on Iran will not wipe a people off the map? When it is said that nothing, including a nuclear strike, is off the table on Iran, are those who say it not also threatening genocide? And we wonder why the rest of the world accuses us of behaving hypocritically, of telling the rest of the world “do as we say, not as we do.””

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

Statement on H Con Res 21 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hc110-21, June 20, 2007 http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2007/cr062007b.htm
2000s, 2006-2009

“What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the priority target for nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons? By threatening to use nuclear weapons. And we can't get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons. The intransigence, it seems, is a function of the weapons themselves.”

Martin Amis book Einstein's Monsters

"Introduction: Thinkability"
Einstein's Monsters (1987)

“We need a regime change in this country.… If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral authority.”

Jesse Jackson (1941) African-American civil rights activist and politician

Speech against the Iraq War, reported in Brian Dakss (26 October 2002) "Shades Of The Sixties" http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/26/attack/main527058.shtml CBS News

“The aggressor too should know that the preemptive use of nuclear weapons would not insure victory. With modern detection systems and the combat readiness of the Soviet Union's strategic nuclear forces, the United States would not be able to deal a crippling blow to the socialist countries. The aggressor will not be able to evade an all-crushing retaliatory strike.”

Dmitriy Ustinov (1908–1984) Soviet military commander and politician

Quoted in "Physics and Nuclear Arms Today" - Page 94 - by David Hafemeister - Science - 1991.

“Russia does not have in its possession any trustworthy data that supports the existence of nuclear weapons or any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and we have not received any such information from our partners as yet.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

News conference http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,810093,00.html with then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, October 2002.
2000 - 2005

“As long as some of us choose to rely on nuclear weapons, we continue to risk that these same weapons will become increasingly attractive to others.
I have no doubt that, if we hope to escape self-destruction, then nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security.”

Mohamed ElBaradei (1942) Egyptian law scholar and diplomat, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Nobel …

Nobel lecture (2005)
Context: As long as some of us choose to rely on nuclear weapons, we continue to risk that these same weapons will become increasingly attractive to others.
I have no doubt that, if we hope to escape self-destruction, then nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security.
To that end, we must ensure — absolutely — that no more countries acquire these deadly weapons.
We must see to it that nuclear-weapon states take concrete steps towards nuclear disarmament.
And we must put in place a security system that does not rely on nuclear deterrence.

“It would be our policy to use nuclear weapons wherever we felt it, necessary to protect our forces and achieve our objectives.”

Robert S. McNamara (1916–2009) American businessman and Secretary of Defense

Source: Herbert Y. Schandler (1975), US Policy on the Use of Nuclear Weapons, 1945-1975. p. 55

“We have dealt a serious blow to Al Qaeda in recent years, but they're not defeated, and they'll strike us again, if they can. Iran remains the chief state sponsor of terrorism and is on the path to acquiring nuclear weapons.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

2000s, 2008, (2008)

“The US, whether we like it or not, has nuclear weapons. The US is a member of NATO. Possession by the US of nuclear weapons is obviously a deterrent.”

Denis Healey (1917–2015) British Labour Party politician and Life peer

The London Standard (30 September 1986).
1980s

“I am opposed to the use of nuclear weapons. I am opposed to the holding of nuclear weapons. I want to see a nuclear-free world. I believe it is possible. I do not think we should be renewing Trident… I think we should be promoting an international nuclear weapons convention which would lead to a nuclear-free world.”

Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician

Jeremy Corbyn row after 'I'd not fire nuclear weapons' comment https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34399565, BBC News, 30 September 2015
2010s, 2015

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