Sergei Naryshkin, who is both the director of the SVR, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, and chairman of the Russian Historical Society, addressed the opening of a new exhibition on the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis yesterday entitled “The Cuban Missile Crisis. 60 Years Later” at the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow. “Today, American elites continue to believe that they can wage aggression against our country for as long as they want, throwing the lives of thousands and thousands of Ukrainian citizens and mercenaries into the bonfire of hostilities. Such short-sighted conviction is awash with utterly dangerous consequences,” he said, reported TASS. “The anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis and many of the documents on display at this remarkable exhibition also warn of this,” he pointed out.
Naryshkin highlighted the enormous role played by Soviet envoy to the US Anatoly Dobrynin and Soviet Foreign Intelligence resident in Washington Alexander Feklisov in defending the position of the USSR and seeking compromise. “We must admit that there were rational people among the Kennedy administration, too, capable of sizing up the consequences of their actions and taking responsibility for their own words,” he said. “A compromise was reached: Washington and Moscow removed their missiles from Turkey and Cuba, respectively. The world breathed a deep sigh of relief.”
“However, if we draw this parallel to the end honestly, we will not find a political figure equal to President Kennedy among [today’s] leaders, among the politicians of Western countries nowadays,” Naryshkin continued. “And look: in December of last year and January of this year, neither the US leadership nor NATO’s leaders in response to the quite natural proposals of the Russian side were able to actually reaffirm their commitment to the fundamental principle of international law: equal and indivisible security.”
Earlier, in remarks to reporters, Naryshkin had warned against the nuclear rhetoric coming out of Washington and its allies. “I find the Western rhetoric regarding the possibility of using nuclear weapons extremely worrisome. It is impermissible,” said Naryshkin. He pointed out that the world should not permit a situation where Kiev would have nuclear weapons.
“That the current Kiev regime wishes to possess nuclear weapons humanity was able to see on several occasions, starting from the day when President [of Ukraine Vladimir] Zelensky spoke at a security conference in Munich. His ambitions to possess nuclear weapons were clear already then. The world should not let this happen,” Naryshkin said. While answering the question if Russian rhetoric “left room [for a possibility of] using nuclear weapons,” Naryshkin said: “No, absolutely not.”
