Senior Russian Diplomat Advises Russia’s Adversaries To Be Realistic About Provocations Against Moscow

April 5, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, in an interview yesterday with Rossiya 24 TV, reiterated what Russia has already said about its policy on the use of nuclear weapons. “[W]e have gone over this many times already,” he said. “We are not mincing words here, either. Our adversaries simply have to be realistic about what is going on around them, and to refrain from any escalation or provocations against us. Because otherwise something may happen that for now can be discussed only hypothetically,” TASS quoted him as saying.

Ryabkov stressed that Russia’s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus was a natural response to the growing challenges and risks for Russian security. “There should be no illusions. Russia has a very wide range of forces and means to ensure its own security in any situation,” he said. “Nuclear deterrence has always been and is still present in our system of military planning and in the general concept of deterring our adversaries.”

He vowed that Russia has both the military potential and will power to defend its sovereignty and ward off any threats. “We have—let me emphasize this—both the military resources and the political will. We have determination. Our society is consolidated on the platform of guaranteed protection of our sovereignty for warding off any threats and preventing encroachments on our territorial integrity,” he said.

Ryabkov also said that the Russian suspension of New START opened up Russia’s options for ensuring its own security. “This gave us additional possibilities to ensure our own security at a time when the Americans used or tried to use any channel, any window into our military world to collect extra information,” he said. “That’s not going to happen now.”

Ryabkov further charged that the British announcement about the provision of depleted uranium ammunition for the Challenger tanks that London is supplying to the Kiev regime is the “biggest” step in escalation. London obviously wanted to frighten Moscow, he said, “but this did not happen and will never happen.”

According to Ryabkov, the British “are only harming themselves.” “Obviously, they are doing harm to their clients in Kiev, as they are ignoring the obvious grave consequences of the hypothetical use of such munitions on the battlefield,” he said. “They are showing their hand; this proves that this country continues to up the ante. In the end, it will backfire on them. We will not let Russia be defeated. And all the goals of the special military operation will be achieved without fail.”