Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev declared that his country is in a “new Cold War” with Western countries in a Saturday speech that faulted the United States and allies for a breakdown in relations with Russia.
“NATO’s attitude toward Russia remains unfriendly and opaque, and one could go so far as to say we have slid back to a new Cold War,” Medvedev, who previously served as Russia’s president, said at the Munich Security Conference Saturday.
“On an almost daily basis, we are being described the worst threat, be it to Nato as a whole, or to Europe, America or other countries,” Medvedev said.
“Sometimes I wonder if this is 2016 or 1962,” he said.
The Cold War was a period of confrontation between western countries and the Soviet Union that lasted from the end of World War II through 1989.
Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko, and French Foreign Minister Manuel Valls are among notable figures at the Munich conference.
Russia and the United States’ relationship has become strained in the Obama years. Medvedev said the bilateral relationship between the countries “is more grim” than in 2007.
Speaking after Medvedev Saturday, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said Russia is “destabilising the European security order.”
“Russia’s rhetoric, posture and exercises of its nuclear forces are aimed at intimidating its neighbors, undermining trust and stability in Europe,” Stoltenberg said.
The U.S. and allies have sanctioned Russia for its support of Russian separatists in Ukraine, and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Kerry used his Munich speech Saturday to praise countries involved in U.S.-led, Ukraine-related sanctions of Russia.
Obama, Kerry and their allies have faulted Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and in the West’s assessment, heightening the violence in that country. Western diplomats fear Russia’s ongoing airstrikes in Syria will undo a ceasefire among combatants.
In his remarks, Medvedev pressed Western states to resume including Russia in multilateral talks from which it has been excluded in recent years.
“Our intensive dialogue on the future of Euro-Atlantic security, on global stability, on regional threats is particularly needed now,” he said. “I find it abnormal that it almost completely stopped in many areas.”
“Mechanisms have been suspended that enabled the timely elimination of mutual concerns. Moreover, we have lost the culture of mutual arms control, though this served for a long time as the foundation for building trust,” he said.
