Moscow. December 6th. INTERFAX - Russia does not think about the possibility of a nuclear war with the United States, it hopes that the signal of readiness to protect legitimate interests sent by the Hazel test has been heard in Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We are not thinking about a war with the United States, which may be nuclear in nature. Our Military doctrine says that the most important thing is to avoid a nuclear war," Lavrov said in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.
He recalled that in January 2022, Russia initiated a statement by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which stated that the countries would do everything to avoid confrontation, "recognizing and respecting each other's interests and security concerns."
"But Russia's security interests were completely ignored when they rejected, at about the same time, our country's proposal to conclude an agreement on security guarantees," the Russian minister added.
Answering the question about what signal Russia wanted to convey with the combat test of the Oreshnik hypersonic system, he stressed that the signal "is that we will be ready to do everything to protect our legitimate interests."
"We don't want to aggravate the situation. But since ATACMS and other long-range weapons are used in Russia, we are sending signals. We hope that the latter, from the new Oreshnik system, was taken seriously," Lavrov said.
The Russian minister also drew attention to statements by officials at the Pentagon and other organizations, including NATO, that "the bloc is a defensive alliance, but sometimes, they say, you can strike first, because the best defense is an attack." "The representative of the Strategic Command of the US Department of Defense, Rear Admiral Buchanan, said that he admits the possibility of exchanging limited nuclear strikes. Such threats are of concern. If they follow the logic that some Westerners have been voicing lately, that, they say, do not believe that Russia has "red lines", yes they announced them, but these "red lines" are shifting again, then this is a very serious mistake," Lavrov said.
According to him, in Russia in these matters "we would like to avoid misunderstandings." "But since some individuals in London and Brussels do not seem to assess the situation quite correctly, we are ready to send additional "messages" if they do not draw the necessary conclusions," the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Answering a question about dialogue through closed channels with the United States to prevent nuclear incidents, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that "there is a 'channel' that automatically turns on when a ballistic missile is launched."
"As for the Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile, the system sent a message to the United States 30 minutes before launch. They knew this was going to happen and didn't take it for something bigger and really dangerous," the Russian Foreign Minister said.
Lavrov stressed that preventing a nuclear war "absolutely meets the vital interests" of Russia.
"I hope this applies to the United States as well. I say this because some time ago, the coordinator for strategic communications of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, answering questions about escalation and the possibility of using nuclear weapons, said that the Americans do not want escalation, and if there is any nuclear element, their European allies will suffer. Thus, even mentally, he rules out that the United States may suffer. This makes the situation a little more risky. Perhaps, if this prevails, some reckless steps will be taken. This is bad," the minister added.
According to Lavrov, professionals in the field of nuclear deterrence policy "know very well that this is a very dangerous game."
