Russia Did Not Threaten West With Nukes to Protect Crimea

[cronus]

http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150402/1020357197.html

Russia Did Not Threaten West With Nukes to Protect Crimea – Kremlin

Two British newspapers claimed that Russia had intended to use nuclear force to protect Crimea in March 2014 if NATO had moved additional forces to the Baltic States.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia did not threaten the West with nuclear weapons over the protection of the Crimean Peninsula, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
"Of course not," Peskov told journalists in response to a question of Russia's apparent threat of using nuclear arms to protect Crimea.

Earlier Thursday, two British newspapers, The Times and The Independent, claimed that Russia intended to use nuclear force to protect Crimea in March 2014 if NATO had moved additional forces to the Baltic states.
Western media reports of Russian alleged threats to use nuclear weapons in the Baltics is a clear example of ongoing hysteria in demonizing Russia, Kremlin spokesman said.

"This is a classic example of the continuing hysteria in demonizing our country, that is they are literally twisting the situation around themselves in their information plans, while not even being guided by any fundamental information, then they get scared over what they wrote," Peskov told journalists in Moscow.

He added that "such publications shouldn’t be taken seriously."

The Times and The Independent claimed that Russian representatives had said that attempts to return Crimea to Ukraine would be met "forcefully including through the use of nuclear force" during a March meeting of Russian generals and US officials in Berlin.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150402/ ... z3WF8rdz30

[mistermack]

Whether it was said or not is irrelevant really. The threat is always there on both sides.

And both sides are understandably reluctant to get into any situation that might inadvertently lead to a nuclear exchange.
Ukraine or Crimea isn't important enough to either side, so I don't believe for a minute that it was said. Someone might have pointed out that escalation could take on a life of it's own, and lead to consequences that nobody wanted.
Then someone else might take a comment like that, and ''re-interpret'' it as a threat.
That's what journalists do.

There's no doubt that Russia would have met force with force though. They don't usually do things without thinking it through.
But there was virtually zero appetite in Ukraine to do anything about Crimea. If they haven't got the stomach for it, you can hardly picture Nato having a go.