Although Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili doesn't think it is probable that Vladimir Putin will deploy nuclear weapons in his current war on Ukraine, she qualified that view to Newsmax Friday morning by saying, "We can't completely exclude the possibility."
Zourabichvili was in Washington, D.C., for the funeral of the late U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and for talks with members of Congress.
An outspoken critic of what is increasingly called "Putin's War," the Georgian president said of the Russsian strongman's possible use of nuclear weapons: "I'm not sure he'd be ready for moving in that direction."
But she wouldn't rule out the possibility of such deployment because, in her words, "We cannot plan on him being very rational.
"I don't think that [Putin's deployment of nuclear weapons] is probable," Zourabichvili said, "but we can't completely exclude the possibility."
As for Putin possibly attacking elsewhere, Zourabichvili believes that the Russian strongman is "more playing on nerves" now than he is planning for a larger offensive in other neighboring states such as Moldova — or her own Georgia.
"Because there is a total concentration on Ukraine," the Georgian president told us, "I don't think [the Russians] will move on other fronts."
Zourabichvili believes this in part, she explained,"because of the very substantial support the U.S. will bring to the Ukrainians. I want to congratulate American leadership for this."
But the scenario of an attack on Moldova or Georgia is nevertheless possible since "they are the two countries are not directly protected by NATO or by being in the European Union," she said.
In the Georgian's words, "Those are the two countries that are more fragile. They are small countries with less resources. ... "It's a different country with different resources. The territory is very different and the Georgians would probably not be able to have this kind of resistance [as Ukraine does] and this is something the Russians probably know very well."
She added that "Moldova is even more fragile with very many refugees. We have more than 30,000 and they have something like 100,000. It's a small economy with a huge weight.
"How to play on that is something Russia knows well," said the Georgian. "By the first of May, [Moldova] might be cut off from electricity and gas because the electricity comes from the Transnistria [the "breakaway state" from Moldova that is unrecognized by most of the world] and it is controlled by Russia.
"They have to have a new contract and Russia is setting new conditions. So they are putting on some new pressure.
"It is what I am calling a battle of nerves," she said.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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