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Tom Parfitt in Moscow reported from President Putin’s annual press conference, attended by 1,700 reporters yesterday.
After one of the correspondents asked a question about nuclear war, saying that people used to be afraid of it, the Russian president replied: “And now you are not afraid?”
He said that he had thought the danger of such a development in the world was fading, seeming impossible or at least, less important, adding:
“God forbid, if something like this happens it could lead to the death of all civilisation and maybe the planet”.
However, at present he sees a growing tendency to underestimate this [risk]: “There are dangers. The first is the breakdown, in actual fact we are now observing a falling apart of the international system of arms control.”
Parfitt reminds us that Russia and the US are at loggerheads over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987: “Washington threatened this month to withdraw from the treaty within 60 days if Moscow did not abide by the demands of the agreement. The US claims that Moscow is developing a ground-launched intermediate-range cruise missile in violation of the treaty, an accusation the Kremlin denies”.
Mr Putin said earlier in the week that Russia would be obliged to adapt sea and air-launched missiles for use on land if the US pulled out of the treaty: “Of course we will need to take some steps to ensure our security,” he said. “Let them not squeal then about us gaining some advantages.”
At the press conference, he said that western analysts were talking up the potential use of low-yield nuclear weapons for tactical use but that this “could lead to a global nuclear catastrophe”. He also warned that Russia would retaliate if the US deployed missile defence units in Europe.
He ended on a positive note, saying that he believed “humankind has enough common sense and sense of self-preservation not to carry things to extremes”.
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Nuclear Industries 