MUNICH: The world has plunged into a “new Cold War”, the Russian premier said Saturday, as East-West tensions over Ukraine and Syria took centre-stage at a gathering of world leaders in Germany.
“We have slid into a new period of Cold War,” Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the audience at the Munich Security Conference.
“Almost every day we are accused of making new horrible threats either against NATO as a whole, against Europe or against the US or other countries,” Medvedev added.
It did not take long for those accusations to resurface in Munich, as a group of leaders from eastern Europe took the stage to criticise Russia’s assertive foreign policy.
“Every single day, Russian troops, Russian weapons, Russian ammunition penetrate into my country,” said Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko.
He addressed Russia’s president, who was not present, saying: “Mr Putin, this is not a civil war in Ukraine, this is your aggression. This is not a civil war in Crimea, this is your soldiers who occupied my country. This is not a civil war in Syria, this is your planes bombing the civilian population.”
Poroshenko warned that “pro-Russian parties” were undermining Europe from within with an alternative set of values.
“Isolationism, intolerance, disrespect of human rights, religious fanatics, homophobia — this alternative Europe has a leader. His name is Mr Putin.”
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