Here are key facts about Russia’s nuclear arsenal:

Nuclear superpower

Russia, which inherited the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons, has the world’s biggest store of nuclear warheads.

Putin controls about 5,580 nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

Of those about 1,200 are retired but largely intact and around 4,380 are stockpiled for use by long-range strategic launchers and shorter-range tactical nuclear forces, according to the FAS.

Of the stockpiled warheads, 1,710 strategic warheads are deployed: about 870 on land-based ballistic missiles, about 640 on submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and possibly 200 at heavy bomber bases, FAS said.

Such numbers mean that Moscow could destroy the world many times over.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had a peak of around 40,000 nuclear warheads, while the US peak was around 30,000.

Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war

Under what circumstances would they be used?

Russia’s published 2020 nuclear doctrine sets out the conditions under which a Russian president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or to the use of conventional weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the state is put under threat.”

Newer nukes

The United States said in its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review that Russia and China were expanding and modernizing their nuclear forces, and that Washington would pursue an approach based on arms control to head off costly arms races.

“While Russia’s nuclear statements and threatening rhetoric are of great concern, Russia’s nuclear arsenal and operations have changed little since our 2023 estimates beyond the ongoing modernization,” the FAS said in its 2024 analysis of Russian forces.

“In the future, however, the number of warheads assigned to Russian strategic forces may increase as single-warhead missiles are replaced with missiles equipped with multiple warheads,” FAS said.

Testing

Putin has said Russia would consider testing a nuclear weapon if the United States did.

Last year, he signed a law withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Post-Soviet Russia has not carried out a nuclear test.

Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, only a few countries have tested nuclear weapons, according to the Arms Control Association: the United States last tested in 1992, China and France in 1996, India and Pakistan in 1998, and North Korea in 2017.

The Soviet Union last tested in 1990.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty was signed by Russia in 1996 and ratified in 2000. The United States signed the treaty in 1996 but has not yet ratified it.

Who would give the Russian launch order?

The Russian president is the ultimate decision maker on the use of Russian nuclear weapons.

The so-called nuclear briefcase, or “Cheget” (named after Mount Cheget in the Caucasus Mountains), is with the president at all times. The Russian defence minister, currently Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, currently Valery Gerasimov, are also thought to have such briefcases.

Essentially, the briefcase is a communication tool that links the president to his military top brass and thence to rocket forces via the highly secret “Kazbek” electronic command-and-control network. Kazbek supports another system known as “Kavkaz”.

Footage shown by Russia’s Zvezda television channel in 2019 showed what it said was one of the briefcases with an array of buttons. In a section called “command” there are two buttons: a white “launch” button and a red “cancel” button. The briefcase is activated by a special flashcard, according to Zvezda.

If Russia thought it faced a strategic nuclear attack, the president, via the briefcases, would send a direct launch order to general staff command and reserve command units that hold nuclear codes. Such orders cascade swiftly down different communications systems to strategic rocket force units, which then fire at the United States and Europe.

If a nuclear attack were confirmed, Putin could activate the so-called “Dead Hand” or “Perimetr” system of last resort: essentially computers would decide doomsday. A control rocket would order nuclear strikes from across Russia’s vast armory. – Rappler.com

Putin, speaking just days before a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, said the nuclear war scenario was not “rushing” up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

“From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA in response to a question whether the country was really ready for a nuclear war.

Putin said the US understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory – or to Ukraine – Russia would treat the move as an intervention.

“(In the US) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint,” said Putin, the ultimate decision maker in the world’s biggest nuclear power.

“Therefore, I don’t think that here everything is rushing to it (nuclear confrontation), but we are ready for this.”

Putin’s nuclear warning came alongside another offer for talks on Ukraine as part of a new post-Cold War demarcation of European security. The US says Putin is not ready for serious talks over Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Putin has warned several times the West risks provoking a nuclear war if it sends troops to fight in Ukraine.

Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering full-scale war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.

Nuclear war?

In a US election year, the West is grappling with how to support Kyiv against Russia, which now controls almost one-fifth of Ukrainian territory and is rearming much faster than the West and Ukraine.

Kyiv says it is defending itself against an imperial-style war of conquest designed to erase its national identity. Russia says the areas it controls in Ukraine are now Russia.

Putin has sent a series of public nuclear warnings to the US aimed at discouraging greater involvement in Ukraine – a move the Kremlin says would mark a slide into world war.

Washington says it has seen no major changes to Russia’s nuclear posture but Putin’s public nuclear warnings – which break with the extreme caution of the Soviet leadership over such remarks – have sown concern in Washington.

Putin reiterated the use of nuclear weapons was spelled out in the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine, which sets out the conditions under which it would use such a weapon: broadly a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or the use of conventional weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the state is put under threat.”

“Weapons exist in order to use them,” Putin said. “We have our own principles.”

CNN reported on Saturday the administration of US President Joe Biden was specifically concerned in 2022 that Russia might use a tactical or battlefield nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

Putin said he had never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Talks?

Putin said Russia was ready for serious talks on Ukraine.

“Russia is ready for negotiations on Ukraine, but they should be based on reality – and not on cravings after the use of psychotropic drugs,” Putin said.

Reuters reported last month that Putin’s suggestion of a ceasefire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the US after contacts between intermediaries.

US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns warned earlier this week that if the West did not provide proper support for Ukraine, Kyiv would lose more territory to Russia which would embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Burns, a former US ambassador to Russia, told the Senate Intelligence Committee it was in US interests to support Ukraine to allow it to get into a stronger position before talks.

Putin said he trusted no one and Russia would need written security guarantees in the event of a settlement.

“I don’t trust anyone, but we need guarantees, and guarantees must be spelled out, they must be such that we would be satisfied,” Putin said. – Rappler.com

The case, filed on Wednesday, March 13, at the Tournai commercial court, is the first climate change-related lawsuit in Belgium to target a multinational company.

It follows a case in which thousands of citizens successfully sued the Belgian government to demand stronger greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

A spokesperson for TotalEnergies declined to comment on the case.

Hugues Falys, who farms a herd of cattle in the municipality of Lessines, argues that, as one of the world’s top 20 CO2-emitting companies, TotalEnergies is partly responsible for damage extreme weather did to his operations from 2016-2022.

During that period, successive droughts reduced the yield of his meadows where he grows fodder for the animals – forcing him to buy feed and, eventually, reduce the size of his herd.

“We are an activity completely dependent on the climate,” Falys told Reuters.

He argues TotalEnergies has failed to comply with Belgian law, which states anyone who causes damage must make reparations for it. It is a similar argument to the one used against the Belgian government in the previous climate case.

Falys and three campaign groups joining the legal action are seeking an injunction that would force TotalEnergies to overhaul its business plan.

Their demands include that the company immediately halt investments in new fossil fuel projects, and reduce its oil and gas production each by 47% by 2030.

They also seek damages – which, if awarded, Falys intends to donate to a sustainable farming organization in Belgium. – Rappler.com

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been in Berlin since Monday, March 11, for a working visit.

“The investment deals were made during the Philippine-Germany business forum in Berlin organized by the Department of Trade and Industry on Tuesday,” a press release from the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) read.

The PCO said there were eight agreements inked – three letters of intent (LOI), two memoranda of agreement (MOA), and three memoranda of understanding (MOU).

These agreements, in PCO’s words, are the following:

• LOI to develop a partner hospital to become a training center to support the training needs of other lower tier hospitals
• LOI for the development of an Innovation Think Tank (ITT) hub and “spoke model” to address the strategic target of an inclusive innovation ecosystem in the Philippines
• LOI for the strategic and digital partnership in healthcare with the Department of Health with the goal of revolutionizing healthcare in the Philippines
• MOA between the Philippine government and a German company through a public-private partnership to rehabilitate, reclaim, and re-cultivate degraded farm lands in the Philippines
• MOA to expand potential collaborations in mobility solutions, software services, manufacturing, factory automation, logistics services, energy, security, and safety systems for buildings, consumer appliances, and healthcare
• MOU to invest in a fully integrated solar cell manufacturing facility
• MOU to invest in a manufacturing facility that will modify automobiles into high-end 1 of 1 version and armor-protected cars, as well as manufacture military grade armored personnel carriers for the Asian market
• MOU to put up data centers that will host a digital insurance platform that will serve the Philippines and Southeast Asian region as the group’s main expansion outside of the European Union

Marcos is the first Philippine president in 10 years, or since the administration of Benigno Aquino III, to visit Germany.

The President made an effort to point that out, telling an audience during the Philippine-German business forum that it is the first time in a decade that a Philippine leader addressed the business community in Berlin.

In his earlier meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the two “discussed ways to enhance trade and investment.”

“The Philippines would like to cooperate in the areas of manufacturing, construction and infrastructure, IT-BPM, innovation and startups, as well as renewable energy and minerals processing,” Marcos said.

The two countries also signed agreements to strengthen cooperation on maritime issues and the upskilling of Filipino skilled workers.

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Germany was the Philippines’ 11th top trading partner in 2023, and the leading source of foreign-approved investments, amounting to $7 billion, according to a PCO press release.

Marcos has another stopover in Prague for a state visit to the Czech Republic before flying home to the Philippines on Friday, March 15.

The Central Europe trip is the fifth time he left the country in 2024, further cementing his reputation as a jet-setting president.

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The current administration has defended Marcos’ constant travels and justified them through the investment deals secured from the visits.

In a 2023 piece, former socioeconomic planning chief Winnie Monsod questioned whether the trips were really worth it, saying that based on her experience, foreign direct investments that were pledged during a president’s trip “were either already in the making or already a done deal, and just brought together to coincide with the visits.”

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[ANALYSIS] Are the foreign trips really worth it?

– Rappler.com

Apple announced the changes to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which kicked in last week. The changes could dent the high profit margins and steady stream of revenue that Apple has come to rely on from its App store, where it charges developers fees of up to 30%.

The changes, which affect only the European Union, come amid continuing criticism from rivals that Apple’s compliance efforts are falling short.

Beginning this spring, software developers operating in Europe will be able to distribute apps to EU customers directly from their own websites instead of through the App Store.

“While the App Store won’t be able to be milked as freely, it’s still likely to remain a considerable cash cow for some time as there are strings attached to this peace offering from Apple,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Developers must still meet terms and conditions set by Apple and be authorized developers. Apple has also introduced a “core technology fee” of 50 euro cents per user account each year, even if developers opt not to use Apple’s App Store or payment system.

The DMA aims to rein in Apple, Amazon, TikTok owner ByteDance, Meta Platforms, Alphabet’s Google and Microsoft, and create a level playing field for smaller rivals and ultimately more competition for Europeans.

“To reflect the DMA’s changes, users in the EU can install apps from alternative app marketplaces in iOS 17.4 and later. Users will be able to download an alternative marketplace app from the marketplace developer’s website,” Apple said on its website. IOS refers to the software platform that runs Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

The opening in Europe of Apple’s ecosystem, which the company has long guarded as a highly profitable “walled garden,” comes at a sensitive time for the tech giant.

The iPhone maker is struggling with shrinking revenue and weak demand for its smartphones in China. In January, Microsoft dethroned Apple as the world’s most valuable company, with investors viewing Apple as lagging its Big Tech rivals in their race to dominate artificial-intelligence technology.

Apple’s stock was up 0.6% on Tuesday afternoon, reducing its loss in 2024 to 10%.

Changes announced on Tuesday include letting developers set up alternative app marketplaces to offer a catalogue solely made up of the developer’s own apps with immediate effect.

Developers can choose how to design in-app promotions, discounts and other deals when directing users to complete a transaction on their website instead of using Apple’s template.

Under pressure from regulators and the DMA, Apple last week took a step back in its feud with Epic Games, allowing it to put its own game store on iPhones and iPads in Europe. DMA violations can cost companies fines as much as 10% of their global turnover.

Apple has also said it will appeal an EU antitrust fine of 1.84 billion euros ($2.01 billion) handed to it last week for thwarting competition from Spotify SPOT.N and other music streaming rivals via restrictions on the App Store. – Rappler.com

Tate and his brother Tristan were detained late last night on allegations of sexual aggression dating back to 2012-15, which they “categorically” deny, his PR team said. The warrant was issued by Westminster Magistrates Court.

“Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were forcibly detained for 24 hours and handed a European arrest warrant by UK authorities. The charges, dating back to 2012-2015, include allegations of sexual aggression,” Andrew Tate’s PR representative said in a statement.

“The Bucharest Court of Appeal is slated to make a pivotal decision today on whether to execute the mandate.”

The court had yet to decide when it will convene to address the warrant. It was not immediately available for comment.

Tate, who gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle, was indicted in June in Romania along with his brother and two Romanian women for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. They have denied the charges.

The case has since been with the Bucharest court’s preliminary chamber, which needs to decide whether the trial can start. A decision has yet to be made, with Romanian courts backlogged.

The Bucharest Court was also set to rule on Friday whether to maintain a seizure of Tate’s assets enforced by Romanian prosecutors at the start of 2023.

The Tate brothers were held in police custody pending the criminal investigation from late December 2022 until April, to prevent them from fleeing the country or tampering with evidence. They were placed under house arrest until August.

They have since been under judicial control, a lighter preventative measure meaning they have regular check-ins with the police but can move around freely except for leaving the country. – Rappler.com

Ukraine’s foreign ministry summoned the papal nuncio on Monday to express “disappointment” with previous comments by Francis that Ukraine should “show the courage of the white flag” and open talks with Russia to end the two-year-old war.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, told Corriere della Sera daily on Tuesday that the Vatican was pressing for a ceasefire and “first of all it should be the aggressors who stop firing.”

Francis’ comments, part of an interview recorded last month but made public only on Saturday, triggered very different reactions from NATO and Moscow.

The Kremlin said the pope’s call to end the war was “quite understandable”, but the boss of the Western military alliance said now was not the time to talk about “surrender.”

Attempting to defuse the situation and clarify Francis’ remarks, Parolin said the pontiff wanted “to create the conditions for a diplomatic solution in the search for a fair and lasting peace.”

To do this, Parolin said it was “obvious” that both sides must come to the negotiating table and the first condition must be “putting an end to the aggression.”

Making clear that he considered Russia the aggressor, Parolin said “the war unleashed against Ukraine was not the effect of a natural disaster,” but of human choices.

“The same human will that caused this tragedy also has the possibility and the responsibility to take steps to end it and to open the way to a diplomatic solution,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper. – Rappler.com

Here is a list of the candidates taking part, and a list of those who wanted to run but could not:

Vladimir Putin

In charge of all the levers of state, incumbent Vladimir Putin, 71, is expected to easily win a landslide victory and another six-year term.

Reviled by Kremlin critics as an autocratic war criminal who rules by fear, opinion polls at home indicate he is supported by a majority of Russians who view him as the kind of tough leader needed to stand up to what they regard as a meddling and expansionist West. A state pollster said in February that its research showed over 75% of Russians were ready to vote for Putin.

A former KGB lieutenant colonel, Putin was appointed acting president on the last day of 1999 by Boris Yeltsin. He then served two four-year terms from 2000-2008 before becoming prime minister from 2008-12. He returned to the presidency in 2012 once presidential terms had been extended to six years, and again in 2018.

In 2020, changes to the constitution were made which allowed Putin to serve another two six-year terms from 2024. That means he could stay in power until 2036.

Nikolai Khartonov

A 75-year-old member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, Kharitonov is the official candidate of the Communist Party, whose candidates have finished a distant second to Putin at every election since 2000.

Kharitonov, a Siberian, stood previously in 2004 and won 13.8% of the vote to Putin’s 71.91%. A state pollster said in February that its research showed that around 4% of Russians were ready to vote for him.

The state TASS news agency has quoted him as saying he would not find fault with the Kremlin leader. “He (Putin) is responsible for his own cycle of work, why would I criticise him?” it cited him as saying.

Kharitonov supports what Putin calls Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, but has in the past opposed some of the ruling pro-Putin United Russia’s party’s domestic policies. He enjoys the backing of Gennady Zyuganov, the 79-year-old veteran Communist Party leader.

Leonid Slutsky

A senior member of the State Duma, Slutsky, 56, is the leader of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). He took over as the party’s permanent leader after the LDPR’s veteran firebrand leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky died in 2022.

Slutsky, a regular on state TV where he voices anti-Western views, is seeking to tap into his late predecessor’s popularity among Russians by campaigning on the slogan “Zhirinovsky lives on.”

A state pollster said in February that its research showed that around 4% of Russians were ready to vote for him. Slutsky has long chaired the parliament’s international affairs committee. He has spoken of the need for Russia to win the war in Ukraine and of the importance of keeping food prices down.

In 2018, a group of female journalists accused Slutsky of sexual harassment. A parliamentary commission exonerated him; his accusers alleged a whitewash.

Vladislav Davankov

Deputy chairman of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, and a lawmaker for the New People political party, which his father, a businessman, helped to set up in 2020. Aged 40, Davankov is the youngest registered candidate and the recipient of various state awards, including one from Putin. He has said he won’t criticise his political opponents. His main campaign slogans are “Yes to changes!” and “Time for new people!” Davankov has tried to position himself as someone opposed to excessive curbs on people’s personal freedom and – in the context of Russian politics – as someone who is more liberal. Without mentioning Ukraine by name, he has said he favours “Peace and talks. But on our terms and with no roll-back.” A state pollster said in February that its research showed that over 5% of Russians were ready to vote for him.

Alexei Navalny

Navalny, who died aged 47 in an Arctic prison colony in February, wanted to become president of Russia and was Putin’s fiercest domestic critic.

Navalny’s supporters accuse Putin of having him murdered, something the Kremlin has rejected. In life, Navalny accused the Kremlin of keeping him out of politics by fabricating a slew of criminal cases against him – including for fraud and extremism – in order to jail him. Navalny accused Putin of also having him poisoned in 2020, something Putin denied.

The Kremlin cast Navalny as a US-backed extremist out to destabilize Russia who had committed real crimes. Navalny’s main allies are either in jail or living outside Russia.

Yulia, his widow, has called on Russians who support her late husband to show up at voting stations at midday on March 17 to make their feelings known. The Kremlin has in the past called such appeals “provocations.”

Boris Nadezhdin

Nadezhdin, 60, had tried to run a long-shot campaign on an anti-war ticket, but the Central Election Commission (CEC) disqualified him in February.

Nadezhdin had surprised some analysts with his criticism of what the Kremlin calls its special military operation in Ukraine, something he called “a fatal mistake” and has said he would try to end through negotiations. Kremlin critics say Nadezhdin would not have even been allowed to campaign and collect signatures without the authorities’ blessing, something he rejected.

The CEC said it had found flaws in signatures that he and his allies had collected in support of his candidacy, and that some were of deceased people. It said that Nadezhdin had therefore failed to gather the 100,000 authenticated signatures needed to become a candidate. He has since unsuccessfully challenged his disqualification in the Supreme Court.

Yekaterina Duntsova

Former TV journalist Yekaterina Duntsova, 40, had wanted to run for president and had called for an end to the conflict in Ukraine and the release of political prisoners. Not a household name inside Russia, election officials disqualified her in December, citing “numerous violations” in the papers she had submitted in support of her bid. Her attempts to challenge the decision were unsuccessful.

When Duntsova announced in November that she had wanted to stand, commentators had variously described her as crazy, brave, or part of a Kremlin-scripted plan to create the appearance of competition. – Rappler.com

The skiers, five of them members of the same family, went missing around Tete Blanche mountain on Saturday on the Zermatt-Arolla path, near the Matterhorn mountain that straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy.

The bodies were discovered on Sunday in Tête Blanche sector, police said.

The skiers were between the ages of 21 and 58, according to an earlier police statement. Five belonged to one family from the Valais canton, while a sixth person is from the canton of Fribourg.

Police did not reveal the identity of those who were found dead.

Zermatt is a popular mountain resort renowned for skiing and attracts tourists from around the world. – Rappler.com

Chega’s parliamentary representation more than quadrupled to at least 48 lawmakers in the 230-seat legislature, giving the combined right a majority.

Earlier, Montenegro’s main rival, Pedro Nuno Santos, conceded defeat after his left-leaning Socialist Party (PS), in power since 2015, came in second by a razor-thin margin. He ruled out supporting the AD’s platform which includes across-the-board tax cuts.

“The AD won the election,” Montenegro told a crowd of ecstatic supporters in the early hours on Monday, adding that it was crucial for parties in the new parliament to act responsibly and “comply with the wish of the Portuguese people”.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa still has to formally invite the AD leader to form a government, which Montenegro said he expected to happen.

While reiterating his election promise not to rely on the right-wing populists for support to govern, he expressed hope the PS and Chega “do not form a negative alliance to prevent the government that the Portuguese wanted”.

The AD and its conservative allies in the insular Madeira region won a total of at least 79 seats, ahead of the PS’s 77.

Four seats were yet to be attributed after the final count of ballots from abroad.

The PS had trailed the AD in most opinion polls since Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa resigned in November amid a corruption investigation.

Santos said his party would now lead the opposition, which could not be left in the hands of Chega.

The far-right party campaigned on an anti-establishment message, vowing to sweep away corruption and expressing hostility to what it sees as “excessive” immigration.

Chega leader Andre Ventura told reporters Sunday’s vote “clearly showed that the Portuguese want a government of the AD with Chega”. He earlier said Montenegro would be responsible for any political instability if he continued to refuse to negotiate.

At the AD election night party, supporter Paula Madeiro said there was “no doubt that instability will be constant”.

The PS and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which helms the newly created AD, have alternated in power since the end of a fascist dictatorship five decades ago.

Alexandra Ferreira, a 21-year-old law student and member of the Socialist Party, said she was “very sad” with the results because of the far-right’s growth. She said it showed that “we have a society with no memory” in reference to the dictatorship.

Issues dominating the campaign in western Europe’s poorest country include a crippling housing crisis, low wages, sagging healthcare and corruption, seen by many as endemic to the mainstream parties.

Still, under the Socialist leadership Portugal has grown at solid annual rates above 2%, and posted budget surpluses of late, using the cash to slash the public debt below 100% of GDP and winning praise from Brussels and investors, who do not expect the AD to abandon the path of fiscal prudence. – Rappler.com