The former Russian president and current number 2 of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, affirmed this Sunday that Moscow was manufacturing the “most powerful means of destruction” based on “new principles”, threatening to use them against the West.
“Our enemy is not only entrenched in the Kiev Government (an administrative territorial entity of Imperial Russia, editor’s note) (…) It is also in Europe, in North America, in Japan, in Australia, in New Zealand and others places that have sworn allegiance to modern Nazis,” wrote Dmitry Medvedev.
“That is why we are intensifying the production of the most powerful means of destruction, including those based on new principles,” he continued in a message posted this Sunday on his Telegram account.
He did not detail these new principles, but apparently made reference in particular to the new generations of hypersonic weapons that Moscow has been proud to be actively developing in recent years.
A nuclear threat?
The specter of nuclear war returned after the offensive in Ukraine in February, underscoring the erosion of the global security architecture dating from the Cold War.
Russian military setbacks in recent months have raised fears that Moscow is considering using its nuclear arsenal to reverse the trend.
This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin put the risk of such a resort into perspective by emphasizing that these weapons were “a means of defence” intended for a “retaliatory attack.” On Friday he also raised the possibility of Russia changing its military doctrine by introducing the possibility of a preemptive strike to disarm an enemy.
The US State Department condemned these latest statements, saying that “any discussion, however vague, about nuclear weapons is utterly irresponsible.”
Source: BFM TV
