MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. Russia does not threaten anyone with nuclear weapons, because they are a safeguard of the security of all member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, Anatoly Sidorov has told a news briefing.

"Some often speak thoughtlessly, because they don't understand what nuclear weapons are about. They don't even roughly understand what the consequences of using nuclear weapons could be. Russia as a country that has nuclear weapons understands this and it never threatens anyone and does not say, 'We will use them if you do this and that.'" The reason I brought up nuclear weapons is that even the documents I just mentioned (the Collective Security Treaty and the Charter of the Collective Security Treaty Organization - TASS) say that Russia’s nuclear weapons are a guarantor of the security of all member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization," he said in response to a TASS question.

Sidorov also commented on Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin’s statement that the United States was preparing Europe for aggression against its eastern neighbors.

"We have both the Union State and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which rest upon not on wishes, but on obligations to assist each other in case of aggression, in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations," he pointed out.