Push for long range arms into Russia: Putin warns it could escalate war against allies

Poland's foreign minister says Washington needs to do more to boost Ukraine's capabilities against Russia radislav sakori met the US Secretary State Anthony blinkin in Warsaw Sikorski said Ukraine should be given permission to use longrange weapons to strike deeper inside Russia Washington has been hesitant because of concerns over how Moscow would react while the Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned against the decision to allow long-range missiles to strike Russian territory he says it would turn the conflict in Ukraine into a wider war between Russia and Ukraine's allies it's not about whether to allow the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not it's about deciding whether NATO countries are directly involved in the conflict or not if this decision is made it will mean nothing less than a direct involvement of NATO countries the US and the European countries in the war in Ukraine it will change the nature of the conflict it will mean that the NATO us and European countries are at war with Russia okay let's speak to Glen dies who's a professor for international relations at the University of Southeast Norway joining us from Oslo Mr dies good to have you with us on alzer so strong words from Putin what do you read into his comments well I think it's being becoming increasingly serious because I think it's already quite obvious that NATO is deeply involved already in this war in terms of the the war planning supplying weapons training intelligence Target selection mercenaries they might even be involved in uh pulling the trigger us to manage some of these complex weapon systems and of course the support for the invasion of Russian territory was also quite severe so it's worth keeping in mind that back in two years ago Biden warned that sending f-16s could trigger World War II so now obvious Le us now will approve perhaps long range missile strikes deep inside Russia using Us weapons and intelligence it's simply seen as one step too far from uh for Russia so even if Putin would be not wanting to retaliate it's building up a lot of pressure on him because they can't simply be seen as accepting these attacks on Russian territory by NATO and not retaliating so there a huge I'm glad you bring up the I'm glad you bring up the f-16s because Moscow in the past in fact just this past July threatened a response when NATO Partners did send these F-16 Jets to Ukraine um so NATO countries will now be paying close attention to the latest comments from Putin won't won't they uh how will this play out yeah and that's the great dilemma that the Russians are facing because if they do strike back at NATO then we might have World War III or and a nuclear exchange however if Russia does not retaliate then its deterrence is weakened and NATO is seen to be emboldened as as you suggested what we learned from the past given that Russia didn't retaliate well at least sufficiently uh as the Western media suggests Russia doesn't defend its red line which means Russia's bluffing which may means that NATO can escalate even further further so but of course there's an end to this at some point because as the crisis escalates more and more the way Russia sees it the risk of not doing something becomes much greater than actually doing something publicly there's been no announcement of any decision being made yet on publicly but behind the scenes what do you think is going on because earlier uh this week blinkin said that the US will continue to adapt its policy as a situation on the battlefield in Ukraine changed has it changed yes uh it changed dramatically I think it's quite evident now over the past few weeks that this war of attrition has reached uh a very critical stage in which now the Ukrainian front lines are beginning to collapse so the Dilemma for NATO is does it negotiate or escalate to keep the war going and uh um and it seems as if some are pushing for negotiations While others are pushing for escalation so this is why the United States is a bit cautious because it it it should be because if they uh escalate this war too much they might not be able to negotiate anymore and also it's the loss of unintended consequence quences as at some point Russia will will retaliate look speaking of escalation I mean if you listen to at least the UK foreign secretary and what he had to say earlier this week as well he suggested that Iran's alleged dispatch of ballistic missiles to Moscow which was revealed this week he said was a significant and dangerous escalation to what extent do you think that has played a role in changing the Strategic thinking in London and Washington if that thinking has changed uh it it could be but again this might turn things on its head because we keep saying that Russia doesn't respond to Nato escalations but this is to some extent a response keep in mind that since for example invasion of K we see now see when the Russians having more heavy bombing uh the Russians threaten to supply weapons to American adversaries such as uh Iran and North Korea we see the Russian warships in the Caribbean but also now this air defense system being sent to Iran and uh yeah if the reports are correct Iranian ballistic missiles coming to Russia so uh this is a form of horizontal escalation where instead of attacking directly on American troops which would make it impossible almost to avoid World War II they're looking at a way to escalate in other areas to bring some pain to America as a punishment for its escalation in the Ukraine proxy war uh so the the feeling in Moscow from what I here is that the US NATO isn't getting the message that Russia will retaliate so it might be that this is not enough and then instead of having horizontal escalation they would have to have some kind of direct response okay thank you so much Glen dies we thank you for joining us from Oslo my pleasure make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from Al