Bolton: If Putin presses the button, the US will assassinate him

Former White House security adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that if Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the US may assassinate him.

In an interview with British radio station LBC, a former close associate of former US President Donald Trump stated that if Moscow decides to use a nuclear weapon in its dispute with Ukraine, as it has already implied, US intelligence agencies will be able to find and assassinate Mr Putin.

In fact, he said, "look what happened in Iran with Qassem Soleimani, when we decide that someone poses a threat to the United States," referring to the Iranian general whom the Americans assassinated under Trump in January 2020, causing months of unrest in Iran and contributing to the Iranian regime's further radicalization.

As a result, any use of nuclear weapons by the Russian ruler would be "suicide," according to Bolton, because the American response would be immediate.

Mr. Bolton stated: "Before we get to that point, I believe we should step up our efforts to keep him from thinking about it. Putin previously bluffed about the use of nuclear weapons, and every indication so far suggests that the current discussion is also a bluff."

"But I don't rule out nuclear weapons if Russian forces in Ukraine collapsed or if Putin were in a really dire political position within Russia," he added. "And we need to make that clear to him, as well as to the people around him, in his government, so that they can act before he does."

Source: LBC, The Independent