MOSCOW, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The world today is a far more dangerous place than it was during the Cold War, Russia's defense chief said Tuesday.
"The world has been changing dynamically, and threats have been changing with a kaleidoscopic speed. The times of the Cold War, when everything was predictable and measured-out, were like a paradise in comparison with the present day," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said, according to a report carried by the RIA Novosti news agency. He was speaking during the first session of the Russian Defense Ministry's public council, the report said.
"Ivanov, who is also Russia's deputy prime minister, said that today the most threatening trend is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In that light, he called on political scientists in the public council to prepare their assessments on developments in the world situation in terms of their impact on Russian national security," the RIA Novosti report said.
The Soviet Union and the United States sustained a strategic nuclear balance of fear, or deterrence through the 44 years of the Cold War from 1945 through the start of the collapse of communism in 1989. The most dangerous moments during that long stand-off were the 1961 Berlin Crisis and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Both crises occurred during the leaderships of Premier Nikita Khruschchev in the Soviet Union and President John F. Kennedy in the United States.
