Doomsday Clock on 11:55

When this clock will show 12:00 there would probably be nobody who will be able to write about it. Doomsday Clock is active since 1947, it was created in order to show in a symbolic way how the humanity is close to its final extinction.

Since the information about it was published for a first time the authors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published by the Chicago University had moved its arms for several times. At the beginning, it was showing 11.53. The most dangerous time was in 1953 when, according to scientists we were just "two minutes" to the end of the world. The second moment was in 1984 (11:57) and the arms race between the US and USSR. Thus, only few years later the Cold War ended and the situation seemed to get better and after two main rivals had signed the START1 treaty, the arm had moved to 11:43. The blow of optimism remained only for several years, we are now observing that the clock is going back to "midnight" once again.

Quite meaningful is the fact, that the scientists from Chicago had added one more criterium in 1990's - the climate change. It is, together with the growing tensions in the international relations, the reason why on January 10th the arm has gone back to its position from 2007.

Is the situation in the world so bad? If we look at the arms and compare their position with the previous one, we will notice that there is still pretty much space left. There was much worse after all. Of course, there was and we need to remeber about that, but on the other hand the clock itself is just a kind of symbolic indicator which is being designed by relatively small group of scientists. They are just humans and they make mistakes just like all people do.
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With the grenade and hammer

President Dmitry Medvedev has declared that the strike systems will be displayed in the area close to Russian western and southern border. Iskander missiles will be also placed in the Kaliningrad region.

It is the answer for the lack of Washington’s agreement on joining Russia to European anti-missile defense system. Medvedev has announced on Wednesday that he will order the Ministry of Defense to “run in a warning system radar station in Kaliningrad without delay”.

He stated that Russia still remains open for a dialogue with the United States and NATO. "We are not closing the door to further dialogue on missile defense with the US and the North Atlantic alliance, nor to practical cooperation in this area. We are ready for further dialogue, the path towards such work depends upon the creation of a clear legal basis for our cooperation that will reflect our legitimate interests" - said Medvedev.

Few days before, one of Russian military officials had warned about that the risk of the nuclear war near the European border. General Nicolai Makarov who is closely connected with the prime minister Vladimir Putin had claimed that: “under certain circumstances, local and regional conflicts can become large-scale wars when the usage of nuclear weaponry might be used”. In his opinion the risk is connected with the change of the military alliances in this part of the continent and NATO expansion to the east. 

It may look that the Russian officials, despite vast political ambitions to create global reality, are still close to the strategy of the hammer or baseball bat. In place of economic dominance, innovation and advanced technology they take military power as their main argument. They still lack not only political finess but also simple originality.

But can we be sure about that?

US spending more on nukes than during the Cold War period

According to Russian RT television, despite former declarations the United States are spending annually more money than before the USSR collapse. Estimates suggest that currently the US puts around $55 billion annually into its nuclear weapons program, while during the Cold War the amount was $35 billion each year. 

Even if the country is cutting back on its nukes, the United States in total have 5,113 nuclear warheads. What is more almost two and a half thousand of nukes which cannot be deployed at a drop of a hat like the others, they can be reanimated as full-fledged warheads. 

Two weeks earlier the largest B53 bomb was disarmed. The bomb was 600-times stronger than the one thrown on Hiroshima.

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