For a long time, Dmitry Medvedev appeared as a moderate politician. But since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin's confidante has repeatedly made extreme statements. The 57-year-old now claims that Russia's nuclear weapons alone are preventing the West from entering the war.
According to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, only Russia's nuclear power is keeping the West from declaring war on Russia. "The only thing stopping our enemies today is the realization that Russia will be guided by the principles of state policy... nuclear deterrence. And in the event of a real threat, it will act accordingly," Medvedev claims in an article in the Russian Official Gazette "Rossijskaja".
The West vacillates between a "burning desire to humiliate, insult, dismember and destroy Russia as much as possible and the desire to avoid a nuclear apocalypse." New disarmament agreements are currently unrealistic and unnecessary. "The sooner the maximum security guarantees appropriate for our country are received, the sooner the situation will normalize," Medvedev continues.
"If we don't get them, the tension will remain indefinitely. The world will continue to teeter on the brink of World War III and a nuclear catastrophe," says Medvedev. Russia's goal remains to eliminate the Ukrainian government in Kyiv. According to experts, Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world with almost 6,000 warheads.
Medvedev is a close confidante of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and was long considered a moderate politician. Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, he has taken an extreme line. It was only in mid-December that he threatened to attack NATO countries. The 57-year-old also declared civilian infrastructure objects to be legitimate targets.
