Putin reminds us all that he’s very much still got his finger on the nuke button

Vladimir Putin paraded his ‘nuclear briefcases’ in front of the world’s press as he met China’s president Xi JinPing.

The Russian president is seen marching in front of the two cases – held by naval officers – as he attended China’s Forum for International Cooperation.

The so-called nuclear briefcases cases can be used to order a strike and are used as a secure communication tool which links Putin to top military officials via the secret ‘Kazbek’ command-and-control network.

They are carried alongside the Russian president at all times but they are rarely filmed.

‘There are certain suitcases without which no trip of Putin’s is complete,’ the Kremlin correspondents of state news agency RIA said in a post on Telegram under the footage.

Putin is visiting Beijing on his second known trip outside the former Soviet Union since the Ukraine war began in February 2022.

‘In the current difficult conditions, close foreign policy co-ordination is especially required,’ Mr Putin said in his opening remarks at the forum.

It comes after Russian troops tried and failed to retake the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka.

The so-called nuclear briefcases cases can be used to order a strike

The briefcases are carried alongside the Russian president at all times but they are rarely filmed

Images suggest Moscow sent their soldiers into battle with 70-year-old Soviet-era vehicles.

At least one armoured vehicle, which has been recorded as a BTR-50 and developed in 1952, was destroyed.

It is unknown what happened to the Russian soldiers inside the tank, but a severe Russian defeat was reported in the area on Friday.

Just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, Putin and Xi met in Beijing and signed an agreement pledging a ‘no-limits’ relationship.

Images suggest Moscow sent their soldiers into battle with 70-year-old Soviet-era vehicles (Picture: @UAWeapons)

China’s attempts to present itself as a neutral peace broker in Russia’s war on Ukraine have been widely dismissed by the international community.

Xi referred to Putin as his ‘dear friend’ as he addressed the Belt and Road Forum.

‘We stand against unilateral sanctions, economic coercion, decoupling and supply chain disruption,’ Xi told more than 1,000 delegates.

Beijing, meanwhile, has increased military harassment of self-ruled Taiwan, the island democracy it claims as its own to be united by force if necessary.

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The Russian president is seen marching alongside the two cases.