The U.K. possesses an estimated 215 nuclear warheads, making it one of nine nations believed to maintain nuclear weapons stockpiles—and it is the smallest inventory of any signatory of the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which was opened for signature in 1968 and put into force in 1970. Russia is thought to possess the largest nuclear weapons stockpile of any nation in the world, with an estimated 7,300 nuclear warheads and plans to expand its nuclear capability. Klintsevich criticized Fallon's threat as empty.
"In the best case this statement can be seen as a form of psychological warfare, which in this context is particularly disgusting," Klintsevich said, according to the state-run TASS Russian News Agency.
He also brought up the U.S.'s use of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II in 1945, which resulted in the death of at least 225,000 people, according to the University of California, Los Angeles's Asian American Studies Center. Klintsevich said that such times have "irrevocably passed," like the "former greatness of the British Empire."
The U.K. has joined a number of Western governments—including the U.S., France and Germany—in criticizing Moscow's recent moves to expand its political and military influence. The Western military alliance NATO and Russia have accused each other of military provocations as they undergo parallel arms escalations along Europe's borders. Last year, the U.S. created four NATO battle groups in the Baltic states and Poland in an effort to bolster NATO's defenses against what the multinational military organization perceived as Russian aggression. Russia has moved nuclear-capable missiles to the region and conducted its own regional drills
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