‘The moment of truth’: Russia renews threats after US condemns ‘pretext for war’

[Counselor706]

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government raised the specter of a military conflict in a series of statements reinforcing their demanded rollback of NATO military presence in Eastern Europe after U.S. lawmakers denounced the Kremlin proposal as a “pretext for war” against Ukraine.

"The security situation in Europe, the Euro-Atlantic region, and Eurasia has indeed greatly deteriorated recently,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday. “The time of diplomatic parlance is over.”

Russian officials hinted at the prospect of military conflict through a variety of signals in different venues. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underscored the threat posed to Ukraine by holding meetings with officials from South Ossetia and Abkhazia — client territories that Moscow recognized as independent countries after the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, a conflict that is widely perceived as a model for Russia’s destabilization of eastern Ukraine.

“The moment of truth has arrived,” Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian Delegation in Vienna on Arms Control, told state media. There must be a serious discussion, and everybody in NATO is well aware that however strong the alliance may be, it is necessary to take concrete political action, because Russia’s military-technical and military response will be the sole alternative.”

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[Bud_Spencer]

Think Europe will raise a finger in protest and, in so doing, risk the gas in Nord Strem II suddenly coming across technial difficulties?