German Foreign Minister Says Berlin Takes Russia’s Nuclear Threats ‘Very Seriously’

BERLIN, Oct. 3 (DPA/EP) –

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Monday that Berlin is taking nuclear threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin “very seriously” and has indicated that they will not give in to “blackmail” by Moscow.

“We take their words very seriously. Anything else would be careless,” he told the German newspaper Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung, adding that they should not and will not participate “in blackmail”, since “Putin would see it as an invitation to greater climbing”.

Baerbock has insisted that the Russian president, who “has lost support at the international level”, has shown “time and time again” that he does not shy away from the “worst war crimes”. “No country in the world, not even those like China that have not taken a clear position so far, would simply agree to play with fire on this issue,” he said.

The German foreign minister has also pointed out that “almost no country in the world supports Putin. “Young Russians are fleeing the country by the hundreds of thousands. The Russian president is more alone and isolated than ever “, she has settled her.