He Kremlin’s most incendiary ideologue has once again set off alarm bells in Europe. Sergey Kaganov, known in diplomatic circles as “Professor Apocalypse” for his obsession with nuclear language, has launched a new direct threat to the continent: according to him, Europeans “have only one thing to fear: physical pain.”
His words come at a time when Moscow is toughening its rhetoric against Brussels and openly criticizing military support for Ukraine. In recent months, Vladimir Putin has promoted a more flexible nuclear doctrineallowing Russia to consider any aggression coming from a non-nuclear country backed by an atomic power as a joint attack, a clear warning to NATO.
The nuclear discourse has become a pillar of Russian propaganda. Presenters, commentators and Kremlin spokespersons multiply their television appearances to insist on the possibility of an atomic attack if the West does not stop its aid to Kyiv. Kaganov, head of the Foreign and Defense Policy Council, He acts as one of the most extreme spokespersons for that hard line.
In an interview with the media Multipolarthe strategist charged against Europe, which he accused of being a historical source of conflicts, racism and colonialism, ignoring that many of these criticisms also fall on Russia. In his opinion, The only way for the continent to regain “geopolitical responsibility” is to return fear to the population. to a full-scale war, including nuclear war.
Kaganov did not stop there. He assured that an atomic detonation on European soil “would transform most countries into a wasteland,” and described the continent’s leaders as “unhinged” and “degenerate,” distant—according to him—from the political elite with which he lived decades ago.
For the advisor, any attempt at dialogue with those Western capitals would be useless. His recipe is as crude as it is explicit: generate fear. “They only understand one thing: physical pain,” he stated, in one of the phrases that has generated the most concern among international analysts.
Russia maintains the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet, with more than 5,500 operational or stored warheads, according to data from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). A capacity that turns this type of threat into an explosive ingredient in the escalation between Moscow and Europe.
