Russia's deputy foreign minister says ‘Doomsday Clock’ reads ‘2 minutes to midnight’

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Russia's deputy foreign minister said on Sunday that the “Doomsday Clock” reads “two minutes to midnight,” referring to the rising tensions between Moscow and Washington.

“I would say that this clock is now showing something like two minutes to (midnight), but this does not mean that the clock is irreversible and the ‘Doomsday Clock’ will begin to strike,” Sergey Ryabkov said in remarks on Russia’s state broadcaster Rossiya-1.

The “Doomsday Clock” is a symbolic representation of the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe inaugurated in 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, an organization founded two years prior by a group of Manhattan Project researchers.

The clock, which is set by the organization annually, uses the imagery of apocalypse – midnight – and the contemporary idiom of a nuclear explosion – the countdown to zero – to put forth current threats to humanity and the planet.

Most recently, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved its “Doomsday Clock” in January 2023 to “90 seconds to midnight,” the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been since its inauguration, which it attributed to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

“We need to approach what is happening with full responsibility,” Ryabkov said, adding that the Russian military needs to “keep its powder dry” because the scenarios can be “very different.”

Ryabkov further said that the moment may come when Russia will need to deploy nuclear missiles in response to actions taken by the West, reiterating remarks by President Vladimir Putin during a parade in St. Petersburg on the occasion of the country’s Navy Day.

Last week, Putin said Russia is in the “final stages” of developing domestic strike systems, warning of “mirror measures” in response to US plans to deploy long-range missile systems in Germany by 2026.

Ryabkov said Moscow will not make any unilateral concessions to the West to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, saying Russia will not give “handouts, gifts, concessions, or any gestures to appease Washington.”

“If they try to impose something unilaterally beneficial to them on us again, then there will be no agreements. That's the only way,” he added.