U.S.-Russia Conflict Would Inevitably Turn 'Nuclear'

Even Gorbachov is warning the West that their wild provocations against Russia are leading the world to thermonuclear war.  This article is in the current issue of EIR.

           Mike Billington

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 Gorbachov's Warning

U.S.-Russia Conflict Would Inevitably Turn 'Nuclear'

Jan. 11—Mikhail Gorbachov, the last leader of the

Soviet Union, warned, in an interview published by

Germany’s Der Spiegel, on Jan. 9, that the U.S.-Russia

confrontation over Ukraine could lead to a major war.

“Such a war today would inevitably turn into a nuclear

war. If someone loses their nerve because of the acri-

monious atmosphere, we will not survive the coming

year,” he said. “I do not say this lightly. This is of truly

the utmost concern to me.”

    This is just the latest of Gorbachov’s high-profile

warnings of the potential consequences of British/

NATO policy toward Russia—which have been echoed

recently by top members of the political class in Ger-

many, France, and Italy. Gorbachov decried the “loss of trust”

between Russia and the West as “catastrophic,” and said ties

must be “defrosted.” Gorbachov accused the West and

NATO of destroying the structure of European secu-

rity by expanding its alliance. “No head of the Krem-

lin can ignore such a thing,” he said, adding that the

U.S. was unfortunately starting to establish a “mega-

empire.”

    Gorbachov also blasted the role of Germany in the

current crisis and, in doing so, reminded it of its own

history. “The new Germany wants its hands in every

pie. There seem to be a lot of people who want to be

involved in a new division of Europe,” he said. “Ger-

many has already tried to expand its influence of power

towards the East—in World War II. Does it really need

another lesson?”

    Gorbachov also denounced the U.S. sanctions

against Russia as “damn stupid and highly dangerous.”

Gorbachov, who has been viewed inside post-Soviet

Russia as an asset of European financial factions more

than a Russian patriot, was not alone in his warnings

about a potential global catastrophe if the West does not

back off from its blatant regime-change drive against

Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

A ‘Warning Shot at Hollande’s Head’

 

    French President François Hollande delivered sev-

eral pointed warnings last week to the effect that the

continuation of Western sanctions against Russia was a

grave error and should be abandoned immediately. On

Jan. 4, Hollande gave an interview to a French TV net-

work, in which he warned that the Russian crisis is not

good for Europe. “Sanctions must be stopped now,” he

told the nationwide network. Two days later, he re-

peated the same call for an end to the anti-Russia antics

and specifically, an end to the economic sanctions that

have are at least as devastating for Europe as they are

for Russia.

    The fact that terrorists attacked the Paris offices of

Charlie Hebdo just three days later, was a “warning

shot at Hollande’s head,” according to one former cab-

inet-level official.

    A week ago Sunday, German SPD national chair-

man—who is also deputy chancellor and minister of

economics in the Merkel government—gave an inter-

view to Bild am Sonntag, demanding an end to the Rus-

sian sanctions, declaring that “we should solve the

Ukraine crisis and not force Russia to its knees.”

Even the foreign minister of Latvia, who is now the

rotating president of the European Union, was adamant

against further provocations against Moscow. Foreign

Minister Edgars Rinkevics reported that Russia was

perfectly willing to hold talks on Ukraine to bring the

sanctions to an end. He urged European leaders to come

together later in the month in Astana with President

Putin and Ukrainian President Poroshenko, to finalize a

working agreement.

    Political directors of the foreign ministries of

Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France met in Berlin on

Jan. 5, followed by a phone call reviewing the progress

of the talks, between Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and his

German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. A meet-

ing of the four ministers is scheduled for Jan. 12 in

Berlin, and there are still plans for a summit of the four

heads of state of Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine

in Astana, Kazakhstan sometime in January. On Jan. 9,

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was in Berlin,

meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, to work out

final plans for the summit, among other pressing mat-

ters.

    Even NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg

noted, following the Jan. 7 terrorist attack in Paris, that

NATO and Russia have a common interest in defeating

the scourge of global terrorism. Speaking in Bavaria

just before meeting with the leadership of the German

coalition partner Christian Socialist Union (CSU), Stol-

tenberg too called for cooperation with Moscow. This

was in stark contrast to the bellicose anti-Putin rhetoric

of his predecessor as NATO chief, Anders Fogh Ras-

mussen.

    Former Czech President Vaclav Klaus added his

voice to those pushing back against the war danger by

declaring that it would be a “major unforgiveable risk”

to blame Russia for the Ukraine crisis.

 

        War Party Not Backing Down

    Despite this resistance against the growing danger

of general war, the war party was by no means silent.

On Jan. 9, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatse-

nyuk (U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European

and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland’s “our man Yats”)

visited Chancellor Merkel in Berlin. In a

joint press conference with Merkel, Yatse-

nyuk delivered a series of personal accusa-

tions against Russian President Putin with-

out a shred of evidence—including that

Putin had ordered the hacking of German

government computers, and that he was

behind sending “bandits” into eastern

Ukraine to fight against the Kiev govern-

ment forces.

    During that press conference, Yatse-

nyuk appeared to be directly apologizing

for Hitler, by referring to the liberation of

Ukraine and Germany at the close of World

War II as a Soviet “invasion.” Efforts to

“clarify” the remarks (which appeared in

the world media via translation from

Ukrainian to German) largely fell on deaf

ears, as genuine statesmen came out

strongly against the Yats comments. Czech

President Milos Zeman blasted Yatsenyuk as the “prime

minister of war,” and delivered a sophisticated distinc-

tion between Yatsenyuk and Ukrainian President Poro-

shenko, who has called for the convening of the Astana

heads of state meeting to settle the Ukraine crisis.

German sources believe that Yats’ deployment was spe-

cifically directed at breaking up any progress in the on-

going talks between Lavrov and Steinmeier.

    In a related development, the Pentagon announced

last week the planned closing of 15 U.S. military bases

in Europe—at a time when the actual size of the Ameri-

can military force in Europe is on the rise. The target list

of closed bases is centered in the United Kingdom and

Western Europe, while the growth factor is all in the

East, including the planned deployment of a tank bri-

gade to some as-yet-undisclosed locations further East.

The gravest danger is that the widening gap between

Moscow and Washington’s narrative of the Ukraine

crisis is a driver for war, and that President Obama’s

continuing venom against Putin is a crucial factor push-

ing confrontation.

    Russia has made clear that its own buildup of its

strategic force is aimed at deterring a Western attack.

Pentagon planners now see the Russian buildup in the

past year as creating a dangerous gap at the level of Eu-

ropean security and strategic deterrence. Not since the

Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 has the world been so

close to global thermonuclear confrontation