Moscow accuses West of fomenting new Cold War
MOSCOW — Top Russian defense and security officials on Wednesday launched diatribes at the West, accusing it of fomenting a new Cold War in a bid to retain waning influence in global affairs.
Moscow used an annual security conference attended by top defense officials from Asia, Africa and Latin America to harshly criticize the U.S. and its allies, accusing them of putting global stability at risk.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused the U.S. and its NATO allies of using “the non-existent Russian threat to methodically boost their military potential” and beef up their forces near Russia’s borders.
Shoigu emphasized that the U.S.-led missile defense program has become a “major destabilizing factor inciting an arms race.”
He pointed at a growing number of NATO intelligence flights near Russia’s borders and an increasing pace of NATO’s military drills, noting that they have “a clear antiRussian character.”
Russia-West relations have sunk to their lowest level since the Cold War following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, differences over the war in Syria and the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Shoigu said that NATO has stonewalled Moscow’s attempts to engage in a dialogue, adding that “we aren’t going to knock on the closed door, but will not leave attempts to apply pressure on us unattended.”
He warned that Moscow will respond to NATO’s moves by strengthening its defense capabilities to “ensure military security of Russia and its allies.”
Russia-West tensions further escalated this month after the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain, leading to mass diplomats’ expulsions by the West and Russia. Britain has blamed Russia for the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, accusations which Russia has ferociously denied.
Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service told the conference that the attack on Skripal was a “grotesque provocation rudely staged by the British and U.S. intelligence agencies.”