A historical look at the "nuclear suitcases" that accompany the Russian and U.S. leaders wherever they go, including this week when Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin are in Geneva for a summit.
This leather satchel is known as the United States' "nuclear football."
And these hardcase containers carried by Russian servicemen are known as the "Cheget" system. The nuclear briefcases are named after a mountain in Russia's Caucasus region.
Both countries' doomsday devices will be somewhere close at hand when U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, meet in Geneva on June 16. The frightening hand luggage enables its owner to destroy much of civilization by ordering nuclear missile strikes from anywhere on Earth.
Lieutenant Commander Woody Lee stands on Red Square with the "nuclear football" attached to his wrist with a leather strap to prevent it from being seized or lost. This photo was taken as U.S. President Ronald Reagan toured Moscow with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in May 1988.
The U.S. "football" is, in fact, a metal case that reportedly includes several booklets, including one that offers up a grim "menu" of potential targets for nuclear strikes. The suitcase also includes a list of secret bunkers where the president and his staff can take refuge during a nuclear war. The case is bundled into a leather bag alongside communications equipment.
A military aide carries the nuclear football near the South Lawn of the White House in April 2017.
The football reportedly got its odd name from an early plan for launching nuclear war called Operation Dropkick, the implication being that a ball was needed to launch a kick.
Military aide General Chester Clifton (right) carries the first iteration of the football alongside U.S. President John F. Kennedy (center) in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in May 1963.
The football first appeared in public after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. President John F. Kennedy had grilled his advisers on how the United States could launch an "immediate" nuclear strike while guaranteeing the orders were coming directly from the president.
A U.S. marine carries the nuclear football into Blenheim Palace, west of London, in July 2018 during a visit to Britain by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Along with the football, U.S. presidents personally carry a card known as the "biscuit" with codes that would verify it is indeed the commander in chief issuing orders through the football. The vice president is issued with the same system in case the president is incapacitated.
A U.S. marine carries the nuclear football at the U.S. ambassador's residence in London on July 12, 2018.
The military staff tasked with carrying the football is rotated from each of the military's six service branches and undergoes the country's most stringent background check.
Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin receives the nuclear briefcases (lower right) in the Kremlin late on December 31, 1999.
Far less is known about the system that Russian leaders would use to activate a nuclear strike. It is reported that the Kremlin's briefcases began operation in 1983, and thanks to a central Russian museum we can see inside one of the early iterations of the device.
The suitcase in the photo, which was put on display in the Yeltsin Center in 2015, was issued to Boris Yeltsin during his 1991-99 presidency.
The three buttons on the left are labeled "recommend, cancel input, and confirm." The red button on the right says "transmit." The device was reportedly designed to be extremely simple to use for the sake of the Soviet Union's often elderly leaders.
Russian officers carry the nuclear briefcases as President Putin arrives for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vladivostok in April 2019.
Russia's suitcase-carrying servicemen are reportedly always in the uniform of naval officers to make them easy to spot in a crowded entourage.
Putin emerges from a helicopter at the Krymsk air base in southern Russia in January 2013. An officer carrying a nuclear briefcase is saluting in the background.
At the summit in Switzerland on June 16, sharp-eyed viewers may be able to spot the U.S. and Russian suitcases. At similar events in the past the devices were usually within a few meters of the nuclear-armed leaders.