Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev told a meeting of top defense and diplomatic officials on Saturday in Munich that “one could go so far as to say we have slid back to a new Cold War” when looking at Western policies targeting Russia over the past few years, according to the Associated Press. Medvedev was referring to the sanctions passed against Russia in response to its 2014 annexation of Crimea as well as NATO’s “hostile and closed” attitude toward Moscow and its moves to strengthen the defenses of partner countries that neighbor Russia. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s 2016 or if we live in 1962,” Medvedev added at one point. In response, NATO officials told Russia to take a long hard look in the mirror. Pointing to how Moscow “is demonstrating open military aggression in Ukraine, open military aggression in Syria,” Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė insisted that “it’s nothing about cold. It is already very hot.” Speaking of Ukraine, Reuters reports that the conflict there seems to be heating up again after a comparative lull following the signing of a peace deal one year ago. According to an official at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the use of banned heavy weaponry in eastern Ukraine is now on the rise, as both the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed rebels accuse the other of violating the ceasefire.
