LONDON- A retired Russian Lieutenant-General has warned that the Cold Warwas comfortable compared to the ongoing conflict and has said that RussianPresident Vladimir Putin “will not accept defeat” if there was to be aWorld War 3.
Evgeny Buzhinskiy was quoted as saying to *Channel 4 News* – “*I think it’sworse than the Cold War. In the Cold War **time** I was in the armed forcesand I was quite comfortable. There were definite duels and definite redlines, everybody knew what to do*.”
He also said that in the Cold War there were no threats, no sanctions, noisolation, there was just ideological confrontation.
When asked whether rising tensions could lead to a third world war,Buzhinskiy told the news channel – “*Of course, you cannot control militaryconfrontation between Russia and the United States*.”
He then went on to say – “*Russia cannot wage a war against the US. Foryears, economically it cannot. In the general purpose forces, we are a bitlagging behind the United States. Russia will **no** accept any kind ofdefeat, so the involvement of nuclear weapons is inevitable*.”
Meanwhile, Russia said on April 16, 2018, that it still hopes for dialoguewith Washington despite US-led strikes on Moscow’s ally Syria. “We hopethat, when our American colleagues solve their internal issues, some kindof communication will begin despite all the damage to (our) bilateralrelations currently imposed by Washington,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskovhad said, *AFP*reported.
He had added that there were no current discussions between the twocountries on a possible summit between US President Donald Trump and Putin.
The US, Britain and France have carried out attacks on alleged chemicalweapons facilities, in response to what they say was a toxic gas attack bythe Russia-backed Assad regime.
Moscow has said the US-led action was aimed at overthrowing Assad andkeeping Russia’s influence in check.
The Western strikes have led to tensions between Washington and Moscowunseen since the Cold War. Putin denounced them as “an act of aggressionagainst a sovereign state which is at the forefront of the fight againstterrorism”.
Russia on Saturday failed to win UN backing for a condemnation of theWestern strikes.