Kremlin Expresses Alarm Over ‘Doomsday Clock,’ Blames US and NATO

The clock with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is being placed at a TV studio ahead of the announcement of the location of the minute hand on its Doomsday Clock, indicating what world developments mean for the perceived likelihood of nuclear catastrophe, at the National Press Club in Washington on Jan. 24, 2023. Leah Millis/Reuters

The Kremlin expressed alarm on Wednesday that the “Doomsday Clock” had edged closer to midnight than ever, even though the scientists who moved the symbolic dial cited Moscow’s own “thinly veiled threats” to use nuclear weapons.

The “Doomsday Clock,” created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, on Tuesday moved its “time” in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for the past three years.