Vladimir Yermakov, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, warned in an interview with TASS that the risk of a direct military confrontation between the US and Russia is very high. “If the US continues to follow its current course towards a standoff with Russia, while constantly raising the stakes on the verge of a direct military conflict, then the fate of the New START Treaty may become sealed,” Yermakov told TASS. “However, in the worst-case scenario, i.e., if Washington drives the situation to a military clash between the strongest nuclear powers, then it is not the fate of the New START but the fate of the entire world that will be a concern.”
“This once again confirms that the most pressing threat today is connected not with the dynamic of stimuli for the first massive strike, which is supposed to be curbed by agreements like the New START, but with a danger of nuclear escalation as a result of a direct military confrontation between nuclear powers,” Yermakov explained. “And, to our deepest regrets, these risks keep growing.” In other words, the danger comes not from the lack of arms control treaties, but from a policy of intentional aggression.
