Biden on Putin's Threat to Use Nuclear Weapons: Irresponsible Behavior

U.S. President Joe Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to use tactical nuclear weapons as "real and completely irresponsible," following his condemnation of Russia's deployment of such weapons in Belarus just days earlier. Biden told a group of donors in California on Monday, "When I was here about two years ago, I expressed concern about the drought in the Colorado River. Everyone looked at me as if I were crazy." Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko mentioned last week that his country has begun receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he claimed are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. This is the first time Russia has moved such equipment—shorter-range, less powerful nuclear weapons that can be used on the battlefield—outside its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The United States stated that it "does not intend to change its position on strategic nuclear weapons in response to Moscow's actions and has seen no indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon."