Russian embassy questions minister’s nuclear weapons comparison

The Russian Embassy in Iceland has expressed surprise at Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir’s remarks in parliament, mbl.is reported. She said it was more serious for former president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson to share an article by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov than for Heimir Már Pétursson to urge France to prepare its nuclear weapons.

Lavrov’s article, published on the Russian website arctic.ru and shared by Ólafur Ragnar on X in August, criticised NATO’s military activity in the Arctic.

In its response, the embassy linked to Lavrov’s article on mid.ru and said that, by the minister’s reasoning, sharing it posed a greater threat than a senior official in the People’s Party parliamentary group calling unequivocally for “nuclear escalation in Europe”. The embassy ended by saying there was some reason for cautious optimism because the foreign minister had confirmed the Icelandic government’s unequivocal support for nuclear disarmament.