Medvedev: Confrontation With West to Last Decades

LONDON (KI) -- Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president, has warned that Moscow’s confrontation with the West will last decades and that its conflict with Ukraine could become permanent.

In an article for the government’s Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper, he said tensions between Russia and the West were “much worse” than during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the world teetered on the edge of a nuclear conflagration.
A nuclear war was “quite probable” but was unlikely to have any winners, said Medvedev, who has repeatedly said Western support for Ukraine increases the chances of nuclear conflict.
He cited sharp differences over Ukraine, the direction of humankind, and the way the world order was structured.
“One thing that politicians of all stripes do not like to admit: such an Apocalypse is not only possible, but also quite probable,” wrote Medvedev.
Many countries in the West, which say they are helping Ukraine defend itself from a brutal colonial war of conquest, have promised to stand by Kyiv for as long as it takes.
The United States, Ukraine’s biggest financial and military backer, has said it does not want to engage in a direct conflict with Russia to avoid the risk of a nuclear war.
Ukraine says it won’t negotiate until it has driven every Russian soldier from its territory.
Medvedev said Moscow was still committed to stopping Ukraine join NATO.
“Our goal is simple - to eliminate the threat of Ukraine’s membership in NATO. And we will achieve it. One way or another,” he said.
Given NATO’s rule about not admitting countries entangled in territorial conflicts, he said the conflict with Ukraine could become “permanent” given its existential nature for Moscow.
The only way to de-escalate tensions between Russia and the West was to enter into tough negotiations, he said.
“The confrontation will be very long and it is too late to tame the recalcitrants,” said Medvedev. “The confrontation will last for decades.”
Russia’s FSB security service said on Monday it had thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea, arresting an agent before he could blow up Aksyonov’s car.
Russian media have reported that security has been stepped up in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and that additional checks are being made on crossings from Russia’s southern Krasnodar region into Crimea.
The FSB said it had arrested a Russian national recruited by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency who had undergone explosives, reconnaissance and sabotage training in Ukraine.
His plan, it said, had been to blow up Aksyonov’s car, but he had been detained as he tried to retrieve an explosive device from a hiding place.