Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent speech to the Federal Assembly in Moscow warned the West about the consequences of starting a war with Russia. Putin said:

“The West has provoked conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and other regions around the world while consistently propagating falsehoods. Now they have the audacity to say that Russia harbors intentions of attacking Europe.”

Now that Ukraine has lost the conflict, the West is “selecting targets to strike on our territory and contemplating the most efficient means of destruction. Now they have started talking about the possibility of deploying NATO military contingents to Ukraine.”

Putin now expresses concern that the West’s provocations could result in nuclear war:

“Everything they are inventing now, spooking the world with the threat of a conflict involving nuclear weapons, which potentially means the end of civilization – don’t they realize this? The problem is that these are people who have never faced profound adversity; they have no conception of the horrors of war. We – even the younger generation of Russians – have endured such trials during the fight against international terrorism in the Caucasus, and now, in the conflict in Ukraine. But they continue to think of this as a kind of action cartoon.”

It is unclear whether Putin yet understands that his tolerance of provocations encourages the neoconservatives to push forward with their hegemonic policy. It is Putin’s failure to put down a firm foot that is leading to war. Putin should understand that in the West there is no alternative voice to the neoconservatives. There is no opposition Putin can rouse as an ally for peace. Putin and Xi are the only constraints on US hegemony. If these constraints remain in abeyance, the march to nuclear war will continue.