Russian president Vladimir Putin turns 70

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, turns 70 today,days afterMoscow mobilised its military, threatened to use nuclear weapons, and moved to annex a large portion of Ukraine. It has also been more than 200 days since Moscow invaded the now-EU-aspiring former Soviet republic.

On September 28, the executive of the European Union suggested more sanctions against Russia for its conflict with Ukraine, including tighter trade limitations, more people being placed on individual blacklists, and a cap on oil prices for third-world nations.

The 27 nations that make up the bloc will now get the plan, and in order for the new measures to be put into effect, they will need to put aside their differences on them.

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Putin warned the West on September 21 that he was serious when he stated he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. He also ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and supported a proposal to take large portions of Ukraine.

Putin approved a plan to takeover a portion of Ukrainian land the size of Hungary and activated 300,000 reservists in the worst escalation of the Ukraine war since Moscow's incursion on February 24.

"If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will without doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people - this is not a bluff,"Putinsaid in a televised address to the nation.

Putinsaid, without providing detailed evidence, that the West was plotting to destroy Russia, engaging in "nuclear blackmail" by allegedly discussing the potential use of nuclear weapons against Moscow, and accused the United States, the European Union and Britain of encouraging Ukraine to push military operations into Russia itself.

The speech, which came after a significant Russian defeat on the battlefield in northeastern Ukraine, stoked rumours about the war's outcome and the future of the Kremlin leader while also demonstrating that Putin was intensifying what he terms his "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Putin is essentially wagering that by raising the possibility of a direct conflict between Russia and the NATO military alliance led by the United States — a step towards World War Three — the West will back down from its support for Ukraine, something it has not yet indicated it will do.

Tens of thousands have died as a result of Putin's war in Ukraine, which has also caused the biggest conflict with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the outbreak of nuclear war.

(With inputs from agencies)

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