Director of Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin gave a comment to the RIA news agency regarding the Kremlin’s further foreign-policy plans and negotiations on Ukraine in particular. Naryshkin’s remarks, as usual, contained a large number of clichés about the “aggressive policy of the collective West,” but there are several points that very clearly outline the Kremlin’s real position:
“European countries, primarily those belonging to this coalition — the odious so-called “coalition of the willing” — are trying to embed absolutely unacceptable conditions for Russia into the system of future peace agreements. Moreover, these are conditions that not only fail to eliminate the root causes of the conflict, the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis, but also significantly complicate the international situation and create conditions for the growth of conflict potential up to a broad, large-scale military conflict”.
That fact the Kremlin accuses Europe of sabotaging negotiations — while Moscow itself has, from the very beginning, put forward deliberately unfulfillable conditions — has long become a classic. What matters here is rather the open threat of further escalation of the conflict, which the Kremlin not only voices explicitly but also preemptively shifts responsibility away from itself — claiming that unresolved “root causes of the conflict” lead to large-scale military confrontation. This euphemism essentially translates as: “Russia will attack Europe”.
This is followed by a more concrete articulation of these threats:
“As for the combat use of the “Oreshnik” system, which a few days ago struck one of the military facilities in the western region of Ukraine, the reaction in both military and political circles in the West was one of shock. Both experts and military specialists admitted that they have no technical or military-technical means to block these systems. And they perceived this, of course, as a warning and a deterrent against the direct involvement of military formations and units of NATO member states in combat operations on Ukrainian territory and the deployment of military contingents on territory controlled by Ukraine after the conflict ends”.
It appears that Naryshkin decided to spell out how Moscow’s missile and nuclear blackmail should be interpreted: namely, if you didn’t get the message, we can fire the “Oreshnik” if European states continue to support Ukraine — and especially if they deploy their forces there. At the same time, references to non-existent opinions of experts and military specialists about the invulnerability of the “Oreshnik” only further highlight the propagandistic nature of such actions — aimed more at intimidating the opponent in the absence of real instruments of influence and tangible results on the battlefield in Ukraine.
It should be noted separately that this was merely a short comment (answers to just four questions) on a fairly narrow topic, rather than a full-fledged interview (despite being presented as such). Especially considering that a major interview with Naryshkin had already been published by TASS earlier in January. Accordingly, this material should be viewed in connection with its publication date — January 26. That is, while many media outlets were reporting on potential progress in ceasefire negotiations in Russia’s war against Ukraine, Moscow officially continues not only to reject any long-term solutions but also to threaten European states with the use of nuclear weapons.
