LinkedIn removes lawyer’s post calling for ‘pre-emptive nuclear attack on Russia’

Widespread shock at Sham Uddin’s comments

LinkedIn has taken down a lawyer’s post calling on Western states to “launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Russia”.

Sham Uddin, a barrister (and entertainer) best known for his eccentric posts on LinkedIn, told his 6,700+ followers that he is “convinced Putin is going to go for the nuclear option”.

Continuing, Uddin, who goes by the ‘Bengal Tiger’ on the professional networking site, advised word leaders to push the button: “The West must launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Russia first. A man who does not care about his own citizens he ain’t gonna care about the citizens of rest of the world.”

“If I was in charge I would launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Russia tonight,” he declared.

Uddin’s post has since been removed by LinkedIn for going against the site’s “professional community policies on violence”. “I did not delete it,” he told Legal Cheek. “LinkedIn restricted the post only I can view it.”

The website’s guidance says content should not “threaten, incite, or promote violence” and must be “professionally relevant” and contribute to the community in “a constructive manner”.

Uddin’s political pointers failed to gain traction among his large following, with the head of compliance at the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority speaking out against it. “If your solution is to go straight to nuclear, thankfully you aren’t in charge,” said Lee Anderson. “It is a truly terrible option with no positive outcomes.”

Other LinkedIn users had suggested the bold move would prompt retaliatory nuclear attacks.

Returning fire, Uddin reassured: “Not all humankind will be destroyed and the planet will remain intact.”

“But we cannot allow a man with a nuclear weapon to terrorise the world,” continued Uddin in the comment section beneath the now-private post. “We are all going to die one day it’s better to die fighting for just cause then to die in the hands of a coward and a terrorist.”

Uddin is no stranger to the pages of Legal Cheek, having made headlines in January 2019 for toting a “flashy” Ferrari in a promo video for his chambers and months later for his war of words with a former magic circle lawyer.

Russian forces last night seized control over Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, in Ukraine. In a statement this morning, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the “reckless” attack and warned it could “threaten the safety of all of Europe”.