In response to comments by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last month calling Russia a nuclear threat and stressing the importance of maintaining and strengthening the NPT (Nuclear Weapon Non-Proliferation Treaty), Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that the United States and its allies “are dangerously balancing on the verge of open military confrontation with our country,” insinuating nuclear escalation.

Zakharova criticized Kishida’s comments, calling them “hostile” and “propaganda purposes to distort the logic of [nuclear] deterrence.” She then called Japan contradictory for calling on Russia to reduce its nuclear capabilities while supporting the increase of American nuclear capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region.

“The cynicism with which an attempt has been made to fit groundless criticism of our country into the context of Hiroshima’s tragedy. It would be logical to assume that against the background of the approaching next anniversary of the tragic events, when nuclear weapons were used against Japan… Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot help but remember that a barbaric order was given in Washington.”

She then shifted by calling the United States the main nuclear threat and saying that Japan hides under a “nuclear umbrella” provided by the US. 

“Having provoked the aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis and unleashing a fierce hybrid confrontation with Russia, Washington and its allies are dangerously balancing on the verge of open military confrontation with our country, and therefore a direct armed conflict of nuclear powers. Obviously, such a clash would be fraught with nuclear escalation,” Zakharova added.

“There are reasonable suspicions that it is Tokyo’s desire to use such nuclear attacks to obscure the historical role of Japanese militarism in the context of World War II and to justify its deliberate departure from the policy of self-restraint in the military sphere.”