Russia's nuclear capabilities in space draw US concerns
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00:00 According to a number of sources in Washington, the United States is facing a new and serious
00:08 national security threat involving Russian nuclear capabilities.
00:13 For the moment, few details have been made public, but one source said the information
00:18 does relate to Russian attempts to develop a weapon based in space.
00:24 Now today, Moscow has dismissed those reports as a fabrication.
00:28 Let's get a little bit more on this now.
00:35 James Andre is our reporter who's been looking into some of this.
00:39 He's with me right now.
00:41 First of all, James, what do we know about this apparent Russian threat on America?
00:46 So what we know for now is that we're talking about a nuclear weapon.
00:49 That is what has been available to American media through sources.
00:53 We're talking about a potential nuclear weapon in space that the Russians are wishing to
00:58 install in the near future.
01:00 That's as much as we know for now.
01:03 It's unclear what the objective of this weapon would be, but it appears that according to
01:07 American intelligence, it would have something to do with destroying satellites in orbit
01:12 and not to use this nuclear weapon on the ground with a satellite as a launcher, which
01:18 obviously would be a problem.
01:20 There's Republican Mike Turner who gave this information at a Congress hearing.
01:27 He's the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
01:30 And indeed, he gave very, very few details.
01:33 We don't really know more.
01:35 What he has done is called upon the Biden administration to declassify documents about
01:40 what he considers to be a very major threat.
01:42 Now this is also coming at an important political time because a lot of experts do say that
01:47 this is not an imminent threat.
01:49 I mean, taking out satellites is something that many countries have the capability to
01:52 do and actually Russia has done it as a test.
01:55 In November 2021, they took out one of their own old satellites out of the sky, which prompted
02:01 reaction internationally.
02:03 But the fact of the matter is, it doesn't appear to be an imminent threat.
02:08 Politically though, it's important to note that Mike Turner is a Republican, but he is
02:12 a staunch supporter of support for Ukraine.
02:16 And as you know, there is a $60 billion package that is stuck in Congress right now.
02:21 So it could also be that politically he's trying to push this agenda, showing that Russia
02:27 is a threat to the American national security in order to advance the fact of getting that
02:31 package through.
02:32 All right, really interesting.
02:33 Thanks for telling us a bit about that, James.
02:35 I do, though, want to get your thoughts on another US-Russia story we're covering today.
02:40 And that's President Putin, who's told Russian media that he'd like Joe Biden, not Donald
02:47 Trump, to be elected in November.
02:50 Who is better for us, Biden or Trump?
02:53 Biden.
02:54 He's more experienced.
02:56 He's predictable.
02:57 He's a politician of an older upbringing.
03:00 But we'll work with any US leader to whom the American people show their trust.
03:08 And James, your thoughts then on what Putin had to say?
03:11 I don't think he was speaking his deep thought at that specific moment.
03:15 I mean, this is pretty much one of the worst endorsements that you can hope for as a US
03:20 president.
03:21 What he is doing here, indeed, is in a sense decredibilizing Biden, showing that he believes
03:25 that Biden is less of a threat than Trump is.
03:29 Trump, who we need to remember, last weekend did make comments saying that, indeed, he
03:34 would invite Russia to do whatever they want to a NATO country that's not paying their
03:38 share in the Global Defense Alliance.
03:40 So yes, what we have here is indeed Putin, in a sense, giving this public, very public
03:47 endorsement to Biden and in thus doing that, decredibilizing him with all the people who
03:53 indeed worry about the Ukraine situation in the United States.
03:57 James Aldrich, thank you very much.