Newsweek: Russia Is Warning That U.S.-Russian Relations Are Nearing a ‘Nuclear Catastrophe’
Oct. 12—“In America, there is an unwillingness to recognize that over the past few decades, the West, led by Washington, has been rejecting Moscow’s outstretched hand of cooperation again and again…. Even the American military started to contemplate a nuclear conflict…. This is extremely short-sighted. America will not be able to sit it out across the ocean. A global nuclear catastrophe would affect everyone.” So warned outgoing Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov in an exclusive interview given to Tom O’Connor, Newsweek’s Senior Writer of Foreign Policy and Deputy Editor of National Security and Foreign Policy, shortly before Antonov returned to Moscow Oct. 6, ending his seven years as ambassador to Washington.
Newsweek’s O’Connor quoted extensively from Antonov in his Oct. 10 article on the interview, breaking through the oppressive press censorship of what Russian leaders are saying, and why. O’Connor also identified key points which led into the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which did not begin out of nowhere in February 2022. As for where things stand today, he quoted Antonov as saying:
“Washington is continuing a dangerous discussion about the possibility of giving Ukrainians a permission to strike deep into Russian territory with Western long-range missiles. They refuse to take into account the clear warnings of the President of the Russian Federation that a ‘green light’ for such attacks would mean NATO’s direct involvement in the conflict, with all the following conclusions on our part….
“The objective maximum task at this stage is to prevent the ties between two great powers and permanent members of the [UN] Security Council from finally plunging into an uncontrolled nosedive. Russia, as a responsible state, is not interested in such an extremely dangerous development of the situation….
“Relations between Moscow and Washington are going through an extremely turbulent period, arguably touching the lowest point in their history. Trust between our countries has been completely lost. With rare exceptions, almost all areas of interaction have been ‘frozen.’”
The White House “continues to burn one bridge after another,” he said. “We believe that normalization [of relations] is valuable in itself for either party.”
Antonov acknowledged that there are “attempts by reasonable political scientists to understand the situation, find workable—at least in the eyes of the United States—options to end the conflict and develop an inter-party consensus based on a common understanding of the danger of collapsing into World War III.” But those voices of reason “are silenced or written off as ‘Kremlin propaganda,’” in a “brutal ‘cleansing’ of the information space in America."
No “controlled escalation … to avoid the worst and weaken Russia, send it into oblivion” will work, Antonov warned. “The main sobering message that is now required to avoid fatal mistakes, is to stop and cease the openly hostile policy towards the Russian Federation. Recognize that our country has national interests and a legitimate right to ensure the safety of its citizens, to have its own alternative viewpoint and the opportunity to share it with anyone who is interested in hearing it.”