Russian officials in a report on Thursday speculated that a nuclear war could leave Romania a "smoking ruins" just as Britain said it intercepted several Russian transports that refused to identify themselves as they approached the Baltic States.

The amped up talk of death and destruction could, analysts warn, return the world to the hair-trigger tensions that shadowed America and the Soviet Union both in the years before President Ronald Reagan demands of Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."

It was the New York Times that said American officials were celebrating the opening of a missile defense system in Europe this week while the discussion in Moscow turned dark.

"We have been saying right from when this story started that our experts are convinced that the deployment of the ABM system poses a certain threat to the Russian Federation," Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters in a conference call.

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"Measures are being taken to ensure the necessary level of security for Russia," he said. "The president himself, let me remind you, has repeatedly asked who the system will work against."

What's next? Find out in "Showdown with Nuclear Iran."

U.S. officials say the system, Aegis Ashore, would protect against attacks from "rogue" operations such as Iran, but do nothing for Europe or the U.S. regarding Russia's arsenal. It's set up under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, commanded by an American officer, the report said.

But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Moscow, "We still view the destructive actions of the United States and its allies in the area of missile defense as a direct threat to global and regional security."

The Times reported she claimed the system's launchpad was nearly the same as one used on Aegis warships for launching Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Analysts also said the site may violate the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which banned land-based missiles with a range from 300-3,400 miles.

The problem is there would only be a time frame of minutes for Russia to respond before a strike.

The report said Russian President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia "has warned that an American antimissile deployment in Eastern Europe could prompt Russia to withdraw from the treaty. The United States last year accused Russia of violating the treaty by failing to declare the true range of two missile types."

At the same time, there was a report from Reuters that British Typhoon jets intercepted three Russian military transport aircraft heading to the Baltic States.

The jets were scrambled from Estonia, but few other details were available. The report said the airplanes "were not transmitting a recognized identification code and were unresponsive."

It was only about six months ago that there were reports President Obama was sending an "expeditionary force" of U.S. military special operators to raid ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

At the time, one Democrat warned of a potential nuclear war with Russia.

Last summer, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan noted congressional plans to provide weapons to Ukraine.

"If the Pentagon is indeed moving U.S. troops and heavy weapons into Poland and the Baltic States, and is about to provide arms to Kiev to attack the rebels in East Ukraine, we are headed for a U.S.-Russian confrontation unlike any seen since the Cold War," he warned.

And earlier in 2015, a WND source reported Moscow could be preparing to move nuclear weapons into the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed, and also position them around the strategic Russian enclave of Kaliningrad near the periphery of NATO countries.

A source who has worked in past U.S. administrations on nuclear-weapon issues told WND then that such a buildup in Crimea could include nuclear weapons, and there is a question whether it would be a violation of the 2010 START treaty, since Crimea has been annexed by Russia.

If not strategic nuclear weapons, Moscow could move tactical nukes into Crimea, the source said.

At the time, Peter Vincent Pry, former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, said Moscow has been preparing for a nuclear war, but its intentions have been largely unreported by the establishment media.

"For years, Russia has been embarked on a massive program modernizing its strategic and tactical nuclear forces," Pry said

What's next? Find out in "Showdown with Nuclear Iran."