GETTY Russian president Vladimir Putin has entered a new Cold War with the US

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President Vladimir Putin has challenged American international hegemony with threats to retaliate against the US if the Aleppo bombing’s sanctions go ahead. Military and foreign policy experts in Moscow believe Russian President Vladimir Putin and western leaders are headed for a dangerous stand-off. Lt Gen Evgeny Buzhinsky, head of the think tank PIR centre, said: “If we talk about the last Cold War, we are currently somewhere between the erection of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile crisis.”

The former head of the Russian ministry of defence’s international treaties department added: “In other words, teetering on the brink of war, but without the mechanisms to manage the confrontation.” Russian officials have accused the US of trying to severe relations between Russia and the west. In response to the Russian bombing of Aleppo, the US has proposed sanctions that could harm Russian economy.

GETTY Russia faces sanctions for bombing Aleppo

Cancelling the plutonium reprocessing deal showed how angry we are Fyodor Lukyanov

But deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow would take "asymmetrical and forceful measures" in return. According to reports Russia has already decided to cut off diplomatic ties with the US until a new leader is elected on November 8. Earlier this month a close ally to Putin claimed the US could face a nuclear war if Donald Trump loses the race. Decision to cut off ties came after US secretary of state John Kerry had cancelled coordination over Syria.

Mr Kerry accused Russia of destroying months of diplomatic works in the area. But President Putin has said Americans regularly backtrack on commitments. Putin added relations between the giants had not broken because of Syria but because America’s domineering attitude. He said: “It is not because of Syria. This is about one nation’s attempt to enforce its decisions on the whole world.”

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But threats escalated when the Russian president cancelled a plutonium reprocessing deal over the United States' policies. The deal stated that both countries would dispose of excessive plutonium by fabricating nuclear plant fuel and transmuting it in a reactor. However Moscow has now stopped the deal calling for Washington to cancel all sanctions against Russia and to roll back Nato commitments. Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of Russia’s council on foreign and defence policy, said: “Ripping it up showed how angry we are because it is related to nuclear security, and the conditions attached were a way of saying 'go to hell’.”

GETTY Putin has cancelled a plutonium reprocessing deal with the United States

AFP Russia is waiting for a new US leader to be elected before resuming talks

The Russian leader is no strange to threats to the West and public display of power. Last week one of Putin’s nuclear warships sailed close to Britain’s coast, only 10 miles from Dover. The MoD was on high alert and two Royal Navy warships escorted the threatening ship until it moved to international open waters. An RAF Rivet Joint spy plane, C130 Hercules and Typhoon jets are also on standby.

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