East-West tensions 'more dangerous' than Cold War

The mounting tensions between the United States and Russia have created a situation that is "more dangerous" than the Cold War, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview published yesterday.

"It's a fallacy to think that this is like the Cold War. The current times are different and more dangerous," Steinmeier told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper.

Wolfgang Ischinger, who served as OSCE mediator for Ukraine, told the newspaper that there was "considerable danger of a military confrontation.

"This danger has not been as strong in decades and the confidence between West and East has never been so low," he said.

The warning came as Lithuania yesterday said that Russia was again deploying nuclear-capable Iskander missiles into its Kaliningrad outpost bordering two Nato members.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said modified Iskander missiles had a range of up to 700 kilometres (440 miles) which means they could reach German capital Berlin from the Russian exclave, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.

Moscow also sent Iskanders to Kaliningrad in 2015 as part of a series of mammoth military drills amid heightened tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Tensions between Russia and the West have escalated to their worst level since the Cold War in recent years after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and launched a military campaign in Syria.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, Russia has flexed its muscles with a series of war games involving tens of thousands of troops in areas bordering Nato Baltic states.

Nato responded by agreeing to deploy four battalions in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as of next year to bolster its eastern flank.