Ivanov Warns: Nuclear Conflict Has Never Been Closer

Igor Ivanov, Russia’s Foreign Minister from 1998-2004 and chair of the Russian International Affairs Council, warned in a Moscow Times article yesterday that the Ukraine crisis is more dangerous than any crisis during the Cold War, urging political leaders to act to prevent a nuclear conflict.

“The threat of a nuclear conflict is higher today than it was during the Cold War. In the absence of a political dialogue, with mutual mistrust reaching historical highs, the probability of unintended accidents, including those involving nuclear weapons, is getting more and more real,” Ivanov wrote.

Ivanov’s chilling statement is the latest in a series of such warnings from leading figures of the trans-Atlantic community who have been collaborating unofficially over recent years to head off confrontation. For example, in 2012-2013, Ivanov was co-chair of the so-called “Track II dialogue” around “Building Mutual Security in the Euro-Atlantic Region,” along with British Lord Des Browne, German diplomat and former Ambassador to the U.S. Wolfgang Ischinger, and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn. On Jan. 25, just one day before Ivanov’s article, Nunn issued his own warning of the danger of nuclear conflict.

Ivanov argues that it is rhetoric to say that a new Cold War has begun. He elaborated: There can be no repeat of the Cold War, because of the changes in the world which do not fit the old paradigm. During the Cold War, despite its dangers,

Ivanov concluded his article with the notion that the presentiments of many that war could come in 2015 should