Vladimir Putin ‘may be ready to have a war’ as he made light of fears around nuclear attacks, Nikita Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter has warned.
Nina Khrushcheva, who is currently in Russia, described a ‘palpable’ sense of anxiety in the country about what the president will do next in the Ukraine war.
The professor of international relations at New York’s The New School told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Mr Putin’s remarks yesterday are unnerving.
At an annual foreign policy conference outside Moscow, Mr Putin was asked whether the world is on the verge of nuclear war.
Mr Putin paused for 10 seconds, in a stretch of silence described by moderator Fyodor Lukyanov as ‘alarming’.