US Security Strategy Reveals Reluctance to Engage in Equal Dialogue With Moscow: Russian Envoy

Last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry underscored that Moscow does not threaten anyone with nuclear weapons, and that it is western capitals who use nuclear rhetoric, trying to make it look like Russia is purportedly preparing to deliver strikes using weapons of mass destruction.

Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has urged the US not to threaten the nuclear option because there will be no winner in a nuclear conflict.

In an article for the Russian daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta published on Thursday, he wrote that Moscow faces a whole array of threats emanating from Washington.

“Let’s take, for example, promises by retired [US] Generals Ben Hodges and David Petraeus to deliver a conventional strike against the Russian Armed Forces and the Black Sea Fleet, or former [US] National Security Adviser John Bolton’s calls for regime change in Russia,” Antonov noted.

The ambassador referred to “recent crazy statements about the possibility of a ‘decapitation strike’ on the Russian military-political leadership”, which he wrote “defies reasonable explanation”.

Antonov added that he wonders what is on “US military planners’ minds”, and that he wants to ask his “American colleagues if John Bolton is okay”.

“It’s time for Washington to abandon ill-conceived and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric. One should not brandish a nuclear baton and rattle nuclear weapons. This is an extremely delicate area. You need to remember every day that there should be no nuclear war and that there will be no victory in a nuclear conflict,” he stressed.

According to the Russian diplomat, Washington cannot resist the intoxication of omnipotence that came after the White House’s self-proclaimed victory in the Cold War.

“I would like to note that there are also sensible people in the United States who see the danger of further aggravation of Russian-US relations. I would like their calls for peace to be heard more often and louder,” Antonov pointed out.

He argued that despite escalating tensions, Russia and the US have not approached the dangerous threshold of a nuclear conflict, warning against a repeat of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

“We by no means should forget the lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I believe that, despite all the difficulties, we have not reached the dangerous threshold of falling into the abyss of a nuclear conflict. I hope that people of common sense will support my view that one should not allow a repeat of the explosive situation of the 1960s,” Antonov emphasized.

Russia’s Envoy to US Slams WH’s New Security Strategy

The ambassador separately dwelt on the new US national security strategy, which he noted does not even mention a strategic dialogue between Moscow and Washington.

“The provisions of the document regarding strategic stability are disappointing. We expected from the [Biden] team, in which there are many people from the disarmament community, specific and substantive ideas on arms control. Instead, they offer to replace START [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] with a sort of expanded and transparent architecture. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the strategy does not mention the Russian-American strategic dialogue at all,” Antonov wrote.

He added that the strategy reflects Washington’s reluctance to negotiate and conduct an equal dialogue with Moscow. According to Antonov, the document also mirrors the White House’s unwillingness “to think about the prospects for a new legally binding agreement to replace START, something that the world is waiting for”.

The remarks followed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov telling Sputnik that “amid the events taking place in Ukraine, the United States and countries that depend on it are actively introducing nuclear rhetoric into circulation.”

“They are trying to present it as if our country is preparing to launch strikes using weapons of mass destruction. Once again, we have to explain that Russia does not threaten anyone with the use of nuclear weapons,” Ryabkov stressed.

He recalled that the document approved by President Vladimir Putin's decree about the fundamentals of the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of nuclear deterrence clearly defines the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons.

Scenarios under which Russia could theoretically use nuclear weapons are set out in the Russian Military Doctrine and in the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.

According to the documents, such a scenario is possible in the event of aggression against Russia or its allies with the use of weapons of mass destruction, or aggression with the use of conventional weapons, when the existence of the state itself is threatened.

Earlier in October, the Biden administration unveiled a new US national security strategy, which specifically described Russia as “an immediate and ongoing threat to the regional security order in Europe".

Under the strategy, the US will adhere to reducing risks of nuclear war but will modernize its nuclear weapons and strengthen its deterrence commitments to its allies.