The hybrid war unleashed by NATO against Russia is unprecedented and has no analogues in the history of the Cold War, Russian Ambassador to Belgium Alexander Tokovinin told Sputnik.

"The hybrid war unleashed by NATO countries against Russia is truly an unprecedented phenomenon that has no analogues in the forty-year history of the Cold War," Tokovinin said when asked if the current situation can be compared to the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the US.

The current situation is complicated by the fact that almost all the "safety locks" that were designed to ensure restraint during the period of Soviet-American rivalry and prevent the situation from getting out of control are now destroyed, the ambassador said.

"The paradox is that, if the public of Western European countries in the 1970s and 1980s of the twentieth century was acutely aware of the threat of the destruction of human civilization as a result of a nuclear conflict, and this problem was then an important part of political life, now this topic has been pushed far away to the periphery of the information space," Tokovinin added.