By David Ljunggren
(Reuters) – Russia’s nuclear arsenal and the rules Moscow has set for its use are the only things stopping the West from starting a war with Russia, an ally of President Vladimir Putin said. Putin in an article published on Sunday.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, also said that Moscow would pursue its war in Ukraine until the “disgusting, almost fascist” regime in Kyiv was removed, and that the country.
In an interview aired separately on Sunday, Putin said Russia was ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the conflict, but said Kyiv and its Western backers were no longer willing to do so. enter the information.
Medvedev, who declared himself president from 2008 to 2012, is one of the most hawkish supporters of the war. He constantly criticizes the West, whom he accuses of wanting to break up Russia for the benefit of Ukraine.
“Is the West ready to put a full-scale war on us, including a nuclear war, in Kyiv’s hands?” he wrote in a 4,500-word article for the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper.
“The only thing that prevents our enemies today is the knowledge that Russia will be guided by the main principles of the government’s policy … of nuclear deterrence. And if there is a real threat, it will act to them.”
Putin and other senior officials have repeatedly said that Russia’s policy on nuclear weapons states that they can be used if there is a threat to regional integrity.
Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, with around 6,000 warheads, experts say.
Earlier this month, Putin said the risk of nuclear war was increasing, but insisted Russia was not “crazy” and saw its own nuclear arsenal as a deterrent.
“The Western world is balancing between the great desire to humiliate, harm, destroy and destroy Russia as much as possible, on the one hand, and the desire to avoid nuclear apocalypse, on the other,” Medvedev said.
If Russia doesn’t get the security guarantees it needs, he said, “The world will be on the brink of World War III and a nuclear disaster. We will do everything we can.” to prevent “.
Medvedev also said that Russia will forget about normal relations with the West for years and decades to come and focus on relations with the rest of the world.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Leslie Adler)
