60 Minutes Asks Secretary of State Blinken If Americans Should Be Worried About Putin’s Threats of Nuclear War

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said US officials have told Russian officials to “stop the loose talk” about nuclear war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to draft an additional 300,000 soldiers for his war against Ukraine, as Ukrainian forces have made significant territorial gains in the last month and Russia has suffered a series of military defeats.

Last week, Putin made what many on the world stage saw as a threat of nuclear war against the west for supporting Ukraine. “This is not a bluff,” he said.

In an interview on 60 Minutes that aired Sunday night, Scott Pelley asked Blinken “How concerned should Americans be about the prospect of nuclear war?”

“Scott we’ve heard a lot of irresponsible rhetoric coming out of Vladimir Putin, but we’re focused on making sure that we’re all acting responsibly, especially when it comes to this kind of loose rhetoric,” Blinken said. “We have been very clear with the Russians publicly as well as privately to stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons.”

Blinken said the US has been in contact with the Kremlin about threats about nuclear war, warning them the “consequences would be horrific.”

“Vladimir Putin has a clear way out of the war he started and that’s to end it,” Blinken said. “If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.”

Blinken also said the US has a plan in place should Putin make good on his nuclear threat.

President Joe Biden also addressed Putin’s rhetoric in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last week, accusing the Russian president of making “overt nuclear threats against Europe.”

Pelley went on to ask Blinken if there should be war crimes trials over atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. Blinken said he saw, on his visit to the Ukrainian city of Irpin, bombed out buildings demonstrating “totally indiscriminate use of force.”

“Wherever the Russian tide recedes, what’s left in its wake is very clear evidence of atrocities and war crimes,” he said.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed those atrocities as “staged” in comments before the UN Security Council. Pelley asked Blinken what he made of that dubious claim.

“This is Alice in Wonderland. It’s the world upside down. Up is down, white is black — truth is false,” Blinken said. “But here’s the thing, Scott. All of these words, all of these words ring totally hollow to every member on the Security Council. So this spewing of words– is not having an effect. On the contrary, I think it just shows the total disconnect between Russia and virtually the entirety of the rest of the world.”

Watch above, via CBS News.