Putin Puts Media On Nuke Alert With Comment On Russia's Readiness

Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments about "Russia's readiness to place its nuclear forces on alert in the event of an unfavorable scenario" has become a volatile statement.

"We were ready to do it [place nuclear forces on alert]. I talked with colleagues and told them that this [Crimea] is our historic territory, Russian people live there, they are in danger and we cannot leave them," Putin said in the "Crimea. Way Back Home" documentary released Sunday by Rossiya-1 TV, according to sputniknews.

"It wasn't us who committed a coup, it was the nationalists and people with extreme beliefs," he added, according to cnn. "I don't think this was actually anyone's wish -- to turn it into a world conflict."

Even as Putin mentioned that the nuclear forces would be trying to protect Russian citizens in Crimea, many media outlets in the western world are looking into the implications of the statement as one on aggression. Ownership of nuclear weapons, as well as the implied threat of their potential rather than their actual use, is a "defensive deterrent", but can also be an aggressive threat.

"After the revolution in Ukraine last year, President Vladimir V. Putin sent military forces to secure Crimea and even weighed putting Russia's nuclear arsenal on alert because of his concerns about both anarchy and Western intervention," The New York Times said.

The media from both sides of the world seem to be getting on high alert. Sputnik says that last year, in October 2014, Russia expressed its readiness to nuclear weapons against North Korean forces crossing the border into South Korea, Washington's ally. It points out that many years earlier, Britain's defense secretary Geoff Hoon, agreed that UK's nuclear weapons would be deployed against Iraq if they used weapons of mass destruction against the British forces.

It added that Crimea became part of Russia after a referendum was held on March 16, 2014, in which "more than 96 percent of Crimean voters wanted to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia."

Crimea rejoined Russia after the February 2014 coup in Ukraine.