The Kremlin is alarmed by the “doomsday clock” and blames the United States and NATO

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Jan 25 (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Wednesday expressed alarm as the “doomsday clock” moved closer to midnight than ever before, even as scientists who moved the symbolic dial cited the “barely veiled” of Moscow to use nuclear weapons.

The ‘Doomsday Clock’, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, moved its ‘time’ on Tuesday to 2023 to 90 seconds at midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for three years.

Midnight on this clock marks the theoretical point of annihilation. The hands of the clock are moved closer or further from midnight depending on the scientists’ reading of the existential threats at any given time.

“The whole situation is really alarming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, calling for a sober assessment of tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis.

He said there was no prospect of detente, based on “the line that was chosen by NATO under the leadership of the United States”.

“This imposes a duty on us to be particularly careful, to be vigilant and to take appropriate measures,” he added.

On Tuesday, the Bulletin’s chairman cited repeated warnings from President Vladimir Putin and other Russian politicians that Moscow might be ready to use nuclear weapons as a key factor in the decision to advance the dial of “the clock of the end of the world”.

“Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalating the conflict by accident, intent or miscalculation is a terrible risk,” Rachel Bronson told a press conference in Washington.

Writing by Gareth Jones Editing by Mark Trevelyan

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