Cheget

The cheget was developed during Yuri Andropov's administration in the early 1980s. The suitcase was put into service just as Mikhail Gorbachev took office as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985. It is connected to the special communications system code-named Kavkaz ({{lang|ru|Кавказ}}, the Russian name for the Caucasus region), which "supports communication between senior government officials while they are making the decision whether to use nuclear weapons, and in its own turn is plugged into Kazbek, which embraces all the individuals and agencies involved in command and control of the Strategic Nuclear Forces."

The President of Russia (the Supreme Commander-in-Chief) has a cheget on hand at all times. It is one of three, with the other two held by the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff. It may be that affirmations from two of the three are needed to trigger an actual launch.[https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2022/09/14/do-russias-military-setbacks-increase-the-risk-of-nuclear-conflict Do Russia’s military setbacks increase the risk of nuclear conflict?], The Economist, 14 Sept 2022, accessed 25 January 2023{{cite journal |url=http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/sep/tsypkinSept04.asp |title=Adventures of the "Nuclear Briefcase" |author=Mikhail Tsypkin |journal=Strategic Insights |volume=3 |issue=9 |date=September 2004 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040923072304/http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/sep/tsypkinSept04.asp |archivedate=23 September 2004}}{{cite news |url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1016/42/362896.htm |title=A 2nd Briefcase for Putin |author=Alexander Golts |newspaper=Moscow Times |date=20 May 2008 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604040029/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/a-2nd-briefcase-for-putin/362896.html |archivedate=4 June 2011}} The General Staff receives the signal and initiates the nuclear strike through the passing of authorization codes to missile silo launch complexes/ballistic missile submarines or by remotely launching individual land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)/submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).{{cite journal |url=http://cns.miis.edu/npr/pdfs/pikaye13.pdf |title=Post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine: Who can push the Button? |author=Alexander A. Pikayev |journal=The Nonproliferation Review |volume=1 |issue=3 |date=Spring–Summer 1994 |pages=31–46 |doi=10.1080/10736709408436550 |access-date=6 August 2014}}

On 25 January 1995, in the Norwegian rocket incident, the cheget was activated in response to a misidentified three-stage scientific sounding rocket (Brant XII as third stage), launched by Norwegian and U.S. scientists; it was the only known time a nuclear briefcase has been activated in preparation for an attack.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/coldwar/shatter031598a.htm |title=Cold-War Doctrines Refuse to Die |author=David Hoffman |newspaper=Washington Post |date=15 March 1998 |accessdate=7 August 2014}}

File:Vladimir Putin 31 December 1999-1.jpg|Then-Acting President Vladimir Putin receiving the "nuclear briefcase" on 31 December 1999.

File:Vladimir Putin inauguration 7 May 2012-26.jpeg|The ceremony of passing the "nuclear briefcase" during Vladimir Putin's third inauguration on 7 May 2012.

{{Portal|Russia|Nuclear technology}}

• Designated survivor – a person chosen from the US Presidential line of succession to be kept distant from the others
• Nuclear football – the American counterpart to Cheget
• Letters of last resort – the British counterpart to Cheget
• Two-man rule
• Cold War
• War
• Nuclear warfare
• World War III
• Dead Hand – Soviet nuclear-control system

{{reflist}}

Category:Nuclear command and control

Category:Military communications

Category:Strategic Rocket Forces

Category:Presidency of Russia