Russia shows concern over NATO’s desire to lower ceiling on use of nuclear weapons

BRUSSELS (TASS): Russia is seriously concerned about the desire of NATO countries to lower the ceiling on the use of nuclear weapons. This was stated on Wednesday by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko at a press conference following a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council (RNC).
“In its military development, the United States and its allies are trying to achieve superiority in all operating environments: land, air and sea. Now space and cyberspace, in all possible theaters of military operations. Conceptually, operatively and technically, the ceiling for the use of nuclear weapons is being lowered. We see that a nuclear component is introduced in the scenarios of various exercises, this also causes our most serious concern, “Grushko said.
The diplomat also pointed to the complete degradation of the arms control system. “It all started with the fact that the United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty (Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems – TASS). Then it did not allow NATO countries to ratify the agreement on adapting the CFE Treaty (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe – TASS), which was intended to become the cornerstone of European security. Then, under the blows of the US administration, the INF Treaty (Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles – TASS note) fell and literally last year the Open Skies Treaty regime was seriously undermined, “the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister noted.
Grushko said that Russia does not rule out the restoration of its diplomatic mission to NATO if the alliance changes its approaches to efforts to ensure common security.
“If NATO turns around, takes a course that will allow it to integrate into collective efforts to build security, which would not be based on the principles on which NATO is trying to build them today, I do not rule out that our diplomatic presence here can be restored,” – said the deputy minister.
Grushko said that Russia will not allow dictating what the numerical presence of its diplomatic mission to NATO should be. He recalled that after repeated artificial reductions, the total strength of the Russian diplomatic mission, including military and technical workers, was set at 10, which is “absolutely unacceptable.” “Russia will not allow anyone to dictate what kind of presence there should be,” the deputy minister said.