Deception

An article in the Internet edition of the Polish daily with the largest circulation sounds an alarm bell that the current Russian leader is arming Russia: 243 nuclear warheads are said to have been deployed near Russia's western border! The source of this news is apparently some "Norwegian organization".

The article is accompanied by a picture of a huge missile during some military parade.

Is this announcement believable? It is actually in the interest of the Russian leadership to scare the West. That's the best way to manipulate the political decisions of western democracies. Russia does not have to deploy actual warheads. It suffices to deploy empty warheads or something similar that someone in the West will "discover" with or without a little help from the Russian side.

Russia's real strength is entirely elsewhere. Russia's strength is based on the use of human intelligence and deception. The production of a fake narrative is far less expensive and much more useful in the long run than production and maintenance of nuclear arms.