Russia Says Risk of Nuclear, Chemical, Biological War Increasing, Blames America

The global security picture including the risk of nuclear, chemical, and biological war, terrorism, and international crime is worsening and this is all America’s fault, Russia claimed on Wednesday.

The United States’ foreign policy is wrecking global security, bankrupting Europe, and risks the outbreak of nuclear war, Russia said in a series of finger-pointing statements while failing to address its own role in the same. Speaking on Wednesday to representatives of Russian-aligned nations in Moscow, Putin ally and Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev made a wide-ranging speech on the many ways in which he perceived America was making the world worse, including fomenting unrest in Eurasia, undermining international arms control, biological experimentation in Ukraine, and pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war.

On his headline claims, which are especially pertinent now as Russia withdraws from a number of treaties on nuclear weapons and conventional forces, Patrushev said the deterioration of global security is the “natural consequence [of]… irresponsible” U.S. foreign policy. Referring to Israel, the Russian politician accused America of exacerbating conflicts and more broadly accused the United States of “stimulating the growth of common threats and challenges, including terrorism, drug trafficking, and transnational organized crime”.

In the latest remarks by a senior Russian politician either suggesting  or outright threatening nuclear war with the West, Patrushev went on to say, per Russia’s state news service that: “The risk of using nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is increasing.” The U.S. bears special culpability in the risk of biological threats, he said, because America has been engaged in “dangerous biological experiments” in Ukraine.

Despite Russia’s obvious role in having been the invading party in the Ukraine war, the politician went on to accuse the United States of inflaming Ukraine, saying the “pumping of weapons and financial and political support” to Kyiv was escalating the conflict. He also accused the West more generally — the U.S., the UK, and the European Union — of undermining the international arms control regime.

Patrushev was not the only Russian leader pointing the finger on Wednesday. His remarks were joined by Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who confirmed the rant was an official statement of the Kremlin. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, made separate remarks in which he specifically claimed American hypocrisy over the war in Ukraine, claiming that Washington had pushed European states to stop buying cheap Russian oil and gas while continuing to import Russian uranium for nuclear energy itself.

Lavrov said: “Washington is essentially ruining its European vassals and allowing its military-industrial complex to earn money… It imposed and continues to impose expensive American liquefied natural gas on the European Union, and with its selfish laws forces European companies to transfer enterprises overseas to where base costs are lower, and while forcing the EU to abandon everything Russian, Washington continues to buy uranium and other critical materials from Russia.”

Indeed, the United States continues to buy uranium from Russia, despite other sorts of energy being subjected to embargoes. As reported by the New York Times in June, U.S. companies spend around $1 billion a year on enriched uranium from Russia, which produces the fuel much more cheaply than Western competitors.

Russia’s remarks on Wednesday amount to a degree of sabre-rattling and finger pointing, but come just days after Russia withdrew from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and months after it suspended the ‘New START’ (reduction of strategic offensive arms) treaty. The United States decried the latest move as an irresponsible “significant step in the wrong direction” which sets back confidence in international arms control.

The CTBT withdrawal is a “disturbing and misguided effort to heighten nuclear risks and raise tensions as it pursues its illegal war against Ukraine”, Antony Blinken said. Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also spoke out against Russia for suspending the treaty, saying it undermined strategic stability. NATO followed Russia’s move by suspending their own involvement in the treaty, arguing a key principle of the pact was reciprocity, and that it was not possible for only one side to abide by the rules.