“The military and political situation in the world continues to deteriorate. The amassed and duly unresolved potential for conflict, including the potential for conflict between nuclear powers, has already led to an extremely severe crisis in the Euro-Atlantic region, and it threatens to escalate into an open military confrontation in the Asia-Pacific region," Ryabkov told a seminar on strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek.
The senior diplomat added that the open military pressure on Russia is dangerously teetering on the brink of an armed conflict between global nuclear powers.
On Nuke-Free Zone in Central and Eastern Europe
The idea of creating a nuclear-free zone in Central and Eastern Europe is as far from reality as possible, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday.
"Today, I do not find anything more distant from reality than such ideas [to create a nuclear-free zone in Central and Eastern Europe] in relation to this region. If people who are now considering such abstractions were really interested in reducing nuclear risks, reducing nuclear arsenals, they would start by stepping up work with Washington in favor of removing non-strategic nuclear weapons from Europe," Ryabkov told reporters in Bishkek.
On Tactical Nukes in Belarus
The deployment of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil is going according to plan, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
"The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is proceeding according to the schedule that Russian President [Vladimir Putin] spoke about. Several stages have now been surmounted in creating the proper infrastructure and re-equipping the appropriate launch vehicles. We are continuing this work," Ryabkov told reporters in Bishkek.