GENEVA, February 1. /TASS/. The West accusing Russia of making nuclear threats is an element of an unprecedented anti-Russian campaign, Senior Adviser of the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN Office in Geneva Denis Zhuykov said at a session of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Wednesday.
"Accusations by the delegations of Western countries against Russia with regards to threats with nuclear weapons are no more than an element of an unprecedented anti-Russian campaign. In reality everything is different," the diplomat noted.
According to him, Russian doctrinal directives in the sphere of nuclear deterrence "have been outlined extremely clearly, do not permit any expansive interpretation and have an exclusively defensive orientation." "Russia’s official rhetoric on this issue does not go beyond these directives and fully complies with our country’s international obligations," Zhuykov stressed.
The diplomat reiterated that "through the fault of Western states, a serious crisis with the involvement of nuclear powers broke out in the European space" and against this background "Russian officials were forced to repeatedly turn to the issue of growing nuclear risks." These statements were made "with the obvious projection onto the US and the NATO nuclear military bloc." "Their hostile expansion with the creation of an anti-Russian foothold in Ukraine threatened Russia’s vital security interests and forced us to react resolutely," the Russian envoy stated. He noted the constructive approach on the part of Russia, indicated by recent agreements in the "nuclear five" format, including the January 3, 2022 joint statement of the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states on preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms races. "We continue to adhere to our obligations both under this statement and within the framework of other agreements," the diplomat concluded.