Vladimir Putin has “never threatened anyone with nuclear weapons”, sidekick Sergei Lavrov has claimed – despite numerous evidence to the contrary, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And he also mentioned both iconic British leaders Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill as he warned the West not to provoke his country.
Lavrov, who as Russia’s Foreign Minister is Putin’s top diplomat, also dismissed a US proposal to resume a dialogue on nuclear arms control, saying it’s impossible while Washington offers military support to Kyiv.
Speaking at his annual news conference, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of fuelling global security risks by encouraging Ukraine to ramp up strikes on Russian territory and warned that Moscow will achieve its goals in the conflict despite Western assistance for Kyiv.
And despite Mr Putin’s well-publicised sabre-rattling in 2022, when he appeared to suggest he could use weapons of mass destruction, Lavrov said: “All they say is that Putin is threatening to use a nuclear bomb, even though no such thing has ever been uttered, in contrast to the Europeans or the Americans.”
In a pointed message to western leaders, Lavrov also referenced wartime Prime Minister Churchill and the so-called Iron Lady, saying: “The Germans said – repeatedly – that Putin should know that we, NATO, also have nuclear weapons.
“The British used to have a lady Prime Minister who said: ‘I will not hesitate to push the button.’
“But no one should try to scare us – and many people know that.
“They should read Churchill more often: he has a quote about the Russian bear and how it should be treated.”
Speaking in 1945 after the end of the war, Mr Churchill said: “There I sat with the great Russian bear on one side of me with paws outstretched, and, on the other side, the great American buffalo. Between the two sat the poor little English donkey, who was the only one who knew the right way home.”
Commenting on a US proposal to resume contacts in the sphere of nuclear arms control, Lavrov described it as “unacceptable,” saying that Moscow has put forward its stance in a diplomatic letter last month. He argued that for such talks to be held, Washington first needs to revise its current hostile policy toward Russia.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in June the Biden administration was ready to talk to Russia without conditions about a future nuclear arms control even as Russia-US ties are at their lowest point since the Cold War, noting “it is in neither of our countries’ interest to embark on opening the competition in the strategic nuclear forces.”
But Lavrov claimed Washington’s push for the revival of nuclear talks has been driven by a desire to resume inspections of Russia’s nuclear weapons sites.
He described such US demands as “indecent” and cynical in view of Ukraine’s attacks on Russian nuclear-capable bomber bases during the conflict.
He mocked the US’s offer to resume nuclear arms dialogue, arguing that Washington’s position amounted to saying, “we have declared you an enemy, but we’re ready to talk about how we could look at your strategic nuclear arsenal again, that’s something different”.
Extensive mutual inspections of nuclear weapons sites were envisaged by the New START treaty, which then-presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed in 2010. The inspections were halted in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
Mr Lavrov added: “Amid a ‘hybrid war’ waged by Washington against Russia, we aren’t seeing any basis, not only for any additional joint measures in the sphere of arms control and reduction of strategic risks, but for any discussion of strategic stability issues with the US.
“We firmly link such possibility to the West fully renouncing its malicious course aimed at undermining Russia’s security and interests.”
