By Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that Russia had no plans to attack NATO or Europe but, if the West escalated the Ukraine war any further, then Moscow should respond and, if necessary, launch preemptive strikes.
The remarks by Medvedev, reported in full by the TASS state news agency, indicate that Moscow sees the confrontation with the West over Ukraine escalating after U.S. President Donald Trump demanded a peace deal within 50 days.
Both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Trump have repeatedly cautioned over the escalatory risks of the war, which both Moscow and the Trump administration cast as a proxy war between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.
Medvedev dismissed repeated NATO and Western European claims that Russia would one day attack a member of the U.S.-dominated military alliance, but also said that Russia needed to be ready to respond “in full” should the West push any further.
“The statements of Western politicians on this topic are complete nonsense,” Medvedev said, adding that Western officials were intentionally seeking to ratchet up tensions.
“We need to act accordingly. To respond in full. And if necessary, launch preemptive strikes,” Medvedev was quoted as saying. He said that many in the West had “treachery in their blood” and an outdated view of their own superiority.
The Kremlin, asked about Medvedev’s remarks, said that he had expressed his opinion and that his concerns about the “confrontational” environment of Europe were justified.
Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, was analysing Trump’s threat to slap 100% secondary sanctions on the purchasers of Russian exports unless Putin agreed to a peace deal in 50 days.
Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, cast himself as a liberal moderniser when he was president from 2008 to 2012. But he has since emerged as an anti-Western Kremlin hawk. Diplomats say his remarks give an indication of thinking among some within the political elite.
WAR RHETORIC
The United States says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Trump, who has repeatedly stated he wants to end the war, said on Monday that he was “very unhappy” and “disappointed” with Putin, though he cast his decision to send weapons to Ukraine as intended to jolt Russia towards peace.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by threats of tougher sanctions, and that his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance.
Russia and the United States are by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers, with about 87% of all nuclear weapons, followed by China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
“What is happening today is a proxy war, but in essence it is a full-scale war (launches of Western missiles, satellite intelligence, etc.), sanctions packages, loud statements about the militarisation of Europe,” Medvedev said, according to TASS.
“It’s another attempt to destroy the ‘historical anomaly’ hated by the West – Russia, our country,” he said.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn in Moscow; Editing by Joe Bavier)
