Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said during the Munich Security Conference last Feb. 13 that the world is in a "new Cold War." Medvedev cited NATO's feelings towards Russia and said the comments in front of world diplomats like U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, per USA Today.

"NATO's attitude toward Russia remains unfriendly and opaque, and one could go so far as to say we have slid back to a new Cold War. Sometimes I wonder if it is the year 2016 or 1962," the Russian Prime Minister said.

"The picture is more grim than in 2007. Russia's rhetoric, posture and exercises of its nuclear forces are aimed at intimidating its neighbors, undermining trust and stability in Europe," Medvedev added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said back in 2007 in the same conference in Munich that the establishment of a new missile defense system by Western countries is risking a new Cold War. Medvedev added in his speech that the penalty imposed by NATO on Russia after the events in Crimea raised tensions.

BBC News reports that Russia has received criticism from other countries because of the Crimean Peninsula invasion back in 2014 and recently with the air strikes in Syria in cooperation with President Bashar al-Assad. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in the same conference that Russia used force on both occasions, but the alliance wants an improved communication with President Putin and the rest of Russian officials.

"We are not in a cold-war situation, but also not in the partnership that we established at the end of the Cold War," Stoltenberg said.

U.S. Senator John McCain quickly responded on Sunday at the same conference in Germany by condemning Russia's attack on Syrian territory, per CNN. He even accused Putin of not being interested in having a partnership with the U.S. and using Syria to modernize its military.

"He wants to re-establish Russia as a major power in the Middle East. He wants to use Syria as a live-fire exercise for Russia's modernizing military," McClain said. The former U.S. presidential candidate added that Putin wants the Syrian province of Latakia for a military outpost and to increase the existing refugee crisis in the West.

According to History, the Cold War between the U.S., its NATO allies and the rest of the Western Bloc against the Eastern Bloc, which consists of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies, started at the end of World War II. The tensions ended on Dec. 25, 1991 when the Commonwealth of Independent States was formed with Russia and most of the former USSR states.