Every Saturday, we revisit a story that’s in the news again. 

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin seems set to win his fifth term as president as voters head to the polls this weekend. Days before the voting began, Putin confirmed that Russia was prepared for nuclear war. Today, we’re going back to an episode digging into similar statements made by Putin.

It originally aired on October 21st, 2022. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed. 

In this episode: 

• Alex Gatopoulos (@alexgatopoulos), Al Jazeera Defence Editor 
• Gerhard Mangott (@gerhard_mangott), Professor of International Relations, University of Innsbruck 

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Amy Walters. The original production team was Ashish Malhotra, Chloe K. Li, Ruby Zaman, Negin Owliaei, Amy Walters, Alexandra Locke, Ney Alvarez, and our host, Halla Mohieddeen in for Malika Bilal. Tim St. Clair mixed this episode. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.