Ivanov: Europe is closer to nuclear war than ever

Calculation of East - West over the crisis in Ukraine has led Europe in danger. Nuclear war is closer than it was during the Cold War, warned the former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov."The risk of dealing with the use of nuclear weapons in Europe is greater than the '80s," said Igor Ivanov, Russian Foreign Minister from 1998 to 2004.

Although the United States and Russia reduce their nuclear arsenals, the pace slows. In January 2015, according to data from the International Research Institute for Peace in Stockholm (SIPRI), Russia and the United States had about 90 percent of world supply, about 7,000 nuclear warheads each, according to Reuters.

"We have less nuklernih warheads, or the risk that they will be used to grow," Ivanov said in Brussels, where he met with the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Polish and US lawmakers.
The Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia not to intimidate neighbors with the story of nuclear weapons and expressed his concern among Western officials.

Ivanov, however, to raise the role of the wrong defensive shield that the United States set up in Europe. Part of that includes the location of the shield in Poland which should be operational in 2018. This is particularly sensitive-for Moscow because the Americans leading near the Russian border.

On the other hand, the United States and NATO say the shield is designed to protect Europe from Iranian ballistic missiles and is not directed against Russia, nor capable of firing missiles.
"The one thing you can be sure. When the United States put its missile defense system in Poland, Russia will respond and set its missile defense system in Kaliningrad, "Ivanov said, referring to the Russian territory on the Baltic.

• 20 Mar, 2016
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