Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov further clarified Moscow’s view that the U.S. policy of a strategic defeat for Russia is leading to global catastrophe. Antonov’s statement appeared on the Russian Embassy’s website in response to a media question regarding his thoughts on a Jan. 19 statement from the U.S. State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel.
Patel had taken aim at what he called “provocative rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons” in earlier statements from the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
Medvedev had said on his Telegram channel yesterday that “the loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war. The nuclear powers did not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends” [emphasis in original]. (https://t.me/medvedev_telegram/252) Medvedev’s comments were in the context of the continued military escalation by NATO, regarding more weapons and tanks for Ukraine, and in the context of statements by NATO officials that Russia must suffer a strategic defeat in Ukraine. Kirill had said in a Jan. 19 sermon that “an attempt to destroy Russia would mean the end of the world.”
In response to these statements, the State Department’s Patel said that “provocative rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons is not only dangerous, it is reckless, adds to the risk of miscalculation and candidly it should be avoided.” Patel blithely then remarked that the U.S. is committed to the Jan. 3, 2022 statement of the five nuclear weapons powers “that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” (https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-january-19-2023/)
