Russia Realizes Trump is Preparing for Nuclear War

Russia accuses Trump of getting Europe ready for nuclear war

Joel Gehrke

 

Russia's foreign minister on Wednesday accused the Trump administration of helping European countries get ready to use "tactical nuclear weapons against Russia."“It should be clear to one and all that the U.S. military thereby prepares the European countries for using tactical nuclear weapons against Russia,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a United Nations conference on disarmament.

Lavrov reiterated Russia’s belief that NATO nuclear exercises involving non-nuclear European countries violates international law restricting the spread of nuclear weapons. He accused the United States of taking “an outspokenly aggressive stance” by deploying nuclear weapons in Europe — a posture he portrayed as a vivid threat of attack against Russia."I hope that the European citizens will manage to say a firm 'no' to the deployment in their territory of weapons of mass destruction that belong to a country that had already used them once against the population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Lavrov said, according to TASS, a state-run media outlet.
Lavrov’s remarks come against the backdrop of changes to the nuclear posture of both the United States and Russia. U.S. officials have accused Russia of deploying a land-based cruise missile in violation of a 1987 arms control treaty. Russia denied that charge.
Russia also envisions the use of low-yield nuclear weapons to win limited conflicts, according to military officials, whereas the U.S. nuclear force is geared towards the kind of total war reflected by Cold War strategy. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis unveiled a Nuclear Posture Review that calls for the development of smaller nuclear weapons to counteract Russian plans.
“Russia must instead understand that nuclear first-use, however limited, will fail to achieve its objectives, fundamentally alter the nature of a conflict, and trigger incalculable and intolerable costs for Moscow,” the review said. “This strategy will ensure Russia understands it has no advantages in will, non-nuclear capabilities, or nuclear escalation options. Correcting any Russian misperceptions along these lines is important to maintaining deterrence in Europe and strategic stability.”
Lavrov replied by turning that accusation back on the United States, and the Pentagon’s call for low-yield nuclear weapons “lower[s] the threshold of using nuclear weapons” and thus threatens Russia.
"Russia has no deployed tactical nuclear weapons,” he said. "In this situation the existence in Europe of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons ready for use is not just a Cold War rudiment, but an outspokenly aggressive stance."