MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. European leaders are ready for reckless actions because they don’t believe that Russia may use nuclear weapons, Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov told TASS.
"Based on their possibilities - and they do have them, they want to ensure their superiority over Russia in terms of conventional arms and unleash a conflict. They make no secret of this and speak about 2027 or 2030 as the latest," he said.
"They [European politicians] don’t think that this is a reckless step. They think that Russia will never venture to use nuclear weapons. They really believe that Russia will not use its nuclear arms," he said, adding that "this is what their strategy of building up arsenals of conventional weapons is based on."
According to Azarov, Europe needs to be reassured that "Russia has the right to deliver a preemptive strike defending itself or respond as it should in such a situation."
He noted that changes in Europe are inevitable, with "more realistic politicians coming to power." In his words, politicians should not play believe-it-or-not games but make decisions based on realities. "And the realities are that Russia has nowhere to retreat: if the European Union attacks it, I think, the Russian leadership will use every opportunity to inflict a defeat on the one who attacked it," he underscored.