The Myth of Lost Soviet Cold War Backpack Atomic Weapons

The Myth of Lost Cold War, Soviet Backpack and Suitcase sized Nuclear Weapons
Even today in 2024 , the mainstream/ legacy media regularly report a myth / fairy tale from The Cold War: That in the dying days of The Soviet Union over 100 x Suitcase Sized or Backpack sized Tactical Nuclear Weapons went missing from Russian Secure Storage, and are now potentially in the hands of international terrorists or rogue states such as Yemen.
The Myth was even invoked by the Ukrainian head of Intelligence Kyrylo Oleksiyovych Budanov discussing the Ukraine/Russian War and The 2023 Wagner Group Mutiny.

This is a scary scenario, that terrorists cold remove a US / European city from the face of the earth with stolen Russian Nuclear Weapons that are so small they can be concealed in a Briefcase, and present day politicians still repeat this myth to leverage fear in the voting public.... except there is one problem...it isn't true!!

The Soviet Backpack/Suitcase Nuclear Myth or Conspiracy Theory was started in 1997 by one man Russian Politician Alexander Lebed who had an axe to grind against his ex-boss Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
The theory was promoted in the West by US Congressman Curt Weldon after a congressional visit to Moscow in 1997. And although thoroughly debunked / denied at the time by both Russian and the US Government, the myth continues to this day.

This video is a forensic examination of the Soviet Suitcase Nuclear Bomb Myth, starting in Part 1 examining whether such a device was even possible with Cold War Nuclear weapons technology.

In Part 2 we will explore the political rabbit hole of how and why the story came to be known and used in an attempt to politically damage the then Russian President. This involves such well known politicians as Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; and even involves then businessman Donald Trump with Russia connections long before he entered politics.

Finally it tells how Alexander Lebed never recovered politically from his stunt, and then like many Russian politicians do, ended up dead in a helicopter crash just 1 year after Vladimir Putin became Russian President...........

00:30 Intro
04:26 Part 1 - Nuclear Technology & Feasibility
16:12 Nuclear Mines / Atomic Demolition Munitions
26:46 Soviet Weapons
31:24 Part 2 - The 1997 Lebed 'Hoax'
44:00 Outro

#coldwar #nuclearwar #Soviet #mysterydrones