Russia’s Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov, spoke to the press this morning, to reiterate for the United States the explicit connection between Russia’s decision, yesterday, to conduct tactical nuclear weapons drills and the “shameless and aggressive” policies of the “Collective West.” In response to Newsweek, Ambassador Antonov addressed the ongoing security threats created for Russia, with the U.S. and its allies constantly beefing up supplies of increasingly deadly weapons to Ukraine, which are more and more aimed at attacking Russian territory and “designed to kill Russian people and carry out attacks on our territory. Step by step, they abandon their own previously declared ‘self-limitations’ in the hybrid war unleashed against us. Roughly speaking, they are trying to ‘simmer’ our country.” This last is an apparent reference to Chatham House’s recommendation to the trick of boiling a frog by raising the temperature incrementally, step by step, as the means to treat Russia.
Asked by media about National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby’s accusation yesterday that Russia was carrying out “reckless and irresponsible” nuclear “saber-rattling,” Antonov reiterated that, “We are not a threat to anyone. However, the deranged strategists in Washington and their satellites in Europe must understand that in their stakes, Russia will use all means to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity. No game of one-sided escalation in the West will succeed.”
