Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warns that when one state has immense military might and greater defense budget that anyone else, this creates is “an insurmountable obstacle” on the road to a world without nuclear weapons.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warns that when one state has immense military might and greater defense budget that anyone else, this creates is “an insurmountable obstacle” on the road to a world without nuclear weapons.

“Can we really imagine a world without nuclear weapons if a single country amasses so many conventional weapons that its military budget nearly tops that of all other countries combined?” the former Soviet leader told to Spiegel Online in an apparent – but not explicit – reference to the US.

“This country would enjoy total military supremacy if nuclear weapons were abolished,” he added, according to RT.

The 84-year-old political veteran called nuclear weapons “unacceptable” and “inhumane” in our modern society as they can easily “wipe out the entirety of civilization”.

“Weapons like this have never existed before in history and they cannot be allowed to exist. If we do not get rid of them, sooner or later they will be used.”

Demilitarization should be put “back on the agenda of international politics,” believes Gorbachev. “This includes a reduction of military budgets, a moratorium on the development of new types of weapons and a prohibition on militarizing space.”

If these actions are not performed, then the talks on any nuclear demilitarization will be just “little more than empty words,” he added.

“The world would then become less safe, more unstable and unpredictable. Everyone will lose, including those now seeking to dominate the world.”