Interview with NATO Head Angered Putin, Not Only is Speach Controlled at Kremlin But They Want Elsewhere

Stoltenberg said NATO must show its nuclear arsenal to the world to send a direct message to its foes. CREDIT: Nato

Why my interview with the head of Nato angered the Kremlin By Joe Barnes  in Brussels As the head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg has had a front-row seat to an era of instability that has left the world on the brink of a global conflict. Under his tenure, the bloc has grown to 32 members and significantly increased defence spending in response to Russia’s invasion, and the former Norwegian prime minister is one of a small group of world leaders at the heart of the West’s support for Ukraine. When The Telegraph was given the opportunity to sit down with him at Nato’s hulking headquarters in Brussels, the conversation soon turned to the threats posed by the alliance’s adversaries. Mr Stoltenberg had a serious warning that the world was returning to an era dominated by rogue nuclear powers like Russia and China. “Nato may face something that it has never faced before, and that is two nuclear-powered potential adversaries – China and Russia. Of course, this has consequences,” he said from his seat in a high-tech interview studio.     A decade ago when the 65-year-old assumed his role at the top of the bloc, nuclear exercises were conducted in complete secrecy. CREDIT: Nato     Discussions on nuclear weapons are shrouded in secrecy, and Western officials usually bat away any questions on strategies. But Mr Stoltenberg was more expressive and vocal on the subject. For a decade, the politician has made transparency a key part of Nato’s strategy. He said it helped “communicate the direct message” that the alliance is a nuclear superpower. That's why he revealed that Nato allies were holding discussions on the status of its nuclear deterrent. "That’s exactly what we’re doing at Nato, for instance at meetings in Nato, a nuclear planning group as we had during the defense ministerial meeting this [last] week," he said. Mr Stoltenberg's remarks whipped up a storm. The Kremlin accused him of an "escalation" in tensions between the West and Moscow, just as the Nato chief touched down in Washington to meet President Joe Biden. It's not every day that your interview provokes such a response from Vladimir Putin's regime. It demonstrated how sensitive the issue of nuclear weapons is at a time of heightened tensions. For now, there has been no change to Nato's so-called "nuclear posture", but Mr Stoltenberg's comments created an air of strategic ambiguity around the alliance's intentions.