US warns Russia's eroding situation could lead to 'more nuclear saber-rattling'
Russia's eroding situation could lead Russian President Vladimir Putin to "more nuclear saber-rattling," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Saturday.
"The ripples of Russia’s invasion has traveled far beyond Europe. Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where autocrats can stamp out the flame of freedom," Austin said while addressing the Halifax International Security Forum.
Austin said the deadly explosion in Poland this week was the result of the "recklessness of Putin’s war of choice."
"Russia’s invasion offers a preview of a possible world of tyranny and turmoil that none of us would want to live in. And it’s an invitation to an increasingly insecure world haunted by the shadow of nuclear proliferation," Austin said.
He went on, "Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching and they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own. And that could drive a dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation."
-ABC News' Matt Seyler




