Footage has appeared on the internet showing Russian President Vladimir Putin surrounded by security guards after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping walking to another meeting, followed by two Russian navy officers in military uniform with a briefcase in their hands.
In another video, Putin emerges from a meeting in Beijing, and Navy officers are again filmed a few feet away from Putin, who grins as he walks down the stairs. Nuclear briefcases are reportedly used to order a nuclear strike.
Moscow took the first step toward revoking the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty on Wednesday, and the country’s top lawmaker warned the US that Russia could abandon the treaty altogether.
In Russia, a naval officer traditionally carries the Cheget nuclear briefcase. It was so named in honour of Mount Cheget in the Caucasus Mountains. As reported by the RIA news agency:
“There are certain suitcases without which no trip of Putin’s is complete.”
The briefcase is a secure communications facility that links the president to senior military leadership and missile forces through the top-secret “Kazbek” electronic command and control network. Kazbek supports another system known as “Kavkaz”.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also has a nuclear briefcase. Before this, a similar video of the briefcases surfaced in 2019, showing one of the briefcases with a set of buttons. The section called “command” contains two buttons: a white “start” and a red “cancel” button. According to the Star, the briefcase is activated by a special flash card.
The US president also has such a device – called the “nuclear football”. The satchel holds the codes the president would use to authenticate an order to launch nuclear missiles should he or she not be at the White House.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on October 17 to attend the third International “One Belt, One Road” Forum, where he will introduce the so-called “Greater Eurasia” idea. As part of this event, Putin will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as a number of other meetings.
