News - Middle East: Russia has assessed the latest nuclear comments by the North Atlantic Alliance military bloc as an inadmissible "escalation" of ongoing political rivalry between world powers.

The Kremlin said on Monday the US-led NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s remarks pertaining to talks on deploying more nuclear weapons would only exacerbate the threat of atomic warfare.

Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday Stoltenberg's remarks were "nothing else but an escalation of tensions."

Peskov added that Russia's President Vladimir Putin would never make comments regarding nuclear weaponry "at his own initiative as he takes the issue seriously."

He pointed out Stoltenberg’s comments appeared to contradict the communique of the Ukraine Conference that said any threat or use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine context was inadmissible.