Foreign minister James Cleverly said on Wednesday Britain was listening carefully to nuclear threats made by Russian President Vladimir Putin but that Putin had a long history of "sabre-rattling".
Asked whether Russian nuclear threats had to be taken seriously, Cleverly told BBC radio: "We always listen carefully ... to what Vladimir Putin is saying. We also recognise of course that he has a long history of sabre-rattling."
(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; editing by William James)