Russia accuses West of 'new cold war' over Syria, Ukraine

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the tense relationship between Moscow and the Western countries has begun a “new Cold War” in the world. His comments came as the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged Moscow to stop bombing in Syria while NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia was destabilizing the European security order.

"One could go so far as to say we have slid back to a new Cold War," he told a packed auditorium of ministers and policymakers. "Sometimes I wonder whether it is 2016 we are living in, or 1962."

Medvedev criticized the increasing influence of NATO and the European Union in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War in 1991, and said that the sanctions against Moscow and new military activities near the Russian border “only aggravate” tensions between the two sides.

 “We can say it even more clearly: We have slid into a new period of Cold War,” Medvedev was quoted as saying.

“Almost every day we are accused of making new horrible threats either against NATO as a whole, against Europe or against the US or other countries.”