Medvedev warns Europe of the nuclear danger of war with Russia
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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Europe could not afford a war against Russia but that if its leaders made the mistake of triggering one then it could escalate into a conflict with weapons of mass destruction.
Russia, Medvedev said on Telegram, does not need such a war, including with “frigid old Europe”.
“They simply cannot afford a war with Russia,” Medvedev said of European powers, adding that “the possibility of a fatal accident always exists.”
“And such a conflict has an absolutely real risk of escalating into a war using weapons of mass destruction,” Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said.
Talks on reducing strategic nuclear weapons must first be conducted between Russia and the U.S., but the arsenals of Britain and France will ultimately have to be included in negotiations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Peskov’s remarks come amid a Kremlin proposal to the U.S. this month to voluntarily maintain for a year the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set out in their New START arms control treaty once it expires next year if the U.S. does the same.
