When Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet today, they won’t just be facing one another just as presidents of two world powers, they will also be the only two men on the planet with access to enough nuclear missiles to destroy the world. Despite being on US soil for the summit at Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Putin will still likely have a device close by which could trigger global nuclear war.
The Cheget is the Russian equivalent of the American so-called Nuclear Football, which is the briefcase containing the launch codes and activation buttons for using atomic weapons. Like Trump is for the US, Putin is a Commander-in-Chief of Russia, and as such he is the head of the armed forces and the person who has final say on whether nukes should be launched. Interestingly, as both leaders meet, they will most likely be sitting just yards away from their own doomsday briefcases, which will be held by a very senior member of the military.
As of the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia is believed to have a stockpile of 5,977 nuclear warheads, including around 1,500 which have been retired or were due to be dismantled.
According to the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States can field 5,244 warheads.
The other countries in the world with nuclear weapons are China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, although the amount of nukes these countries have is far less than Russia and America.
The briefcase one held by Putin is one of three, with another held by the Russian Minister of Defence and the Chief of Staff.
It’s suspected the Kremlin system works by needing at least two or three affirmations by Putin, plus both or one of his ministers.
Once the signal to launch is conveyed, the Russian military has a number of methods of delivering destruction around the globe. Moscow can use nuclear submarines, as well as nukes mounted on long-range bombers, plus land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) which can reach distances of 3,400 miles