Dmitry Medvedev has made a long way since he was president of Russia, when he even declared, along with the then US President Barack Obama, that “the solution of many world problems depends on the joint will of the United States and Russia.”
This week, in his semi-official role of Kremlin’s advocate, Medvedev twice suggested that President Donald Trump’s government was to the war and warned of Moscow’s nuclear abilities after the US leader indicates that he would impose new sanctions against the country.
Although Medvedev is the vice president of the Advice of Security and Russiahe does not hold executive power. But their provocative comments still caught the eye.
On Thursday (31), Medvedev wrote on Telegram that Trump should imagine the apocalyptic series “The Walking Dead” and referred to the Soviet capacity to launch automatic nuclear attacks.
On Friday, the US President responded by ordering two nuclear submarines to be sent to.
The occurs after Trump establishes a new deadline for Putin to end the war in Ukraine, threatening to impose sanctions if a ceasefire is not achieved.
From former president to provocateur
Medvedev today presents a very different image from which he was 42, when he became president of Russia between 2008 and 2012.
Law graduate, without bonds with security services-unlike current President Vladimir Putin, who is former KGB agent-he was familiar with the internet and was willing to modernize the Russian economy and combat corruption.
However, its presidency was seen as a “tax mandate,” while Putin went around constitutional boundaries to maintain power.
Since leaving the presidency in 2012 to allow Putin’s return to office, Medvedev has become a relatively liberal technocrat into an ultranationalist, provoking the opponents of Russia with incendiary posts on social networks.
Just compare what he said to CNN In 2009 – that Russia needed to “have good and developed relations with the West in every way” – with this statement in May: “About Trump’s words saying that Putin is ‘playing with fire’ and ‘really bad things’ can happen to Russia. I only know something really bad – World War II.
Incendiary posts
This change seems to have started after its presidency, when Medvedev began to reposition itself to maintain the confidence of the United Russian ruling party.
As president, Medvedev told the CNN that “the level of corruption is categorically unacceptable.” Later, as Prime Minister, he was the target of an investigation by the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, who accused him of accumulating an “empire of corruption”, with properties luxurious, yachts e vineyard all over Russia.
Medvedev spokeswoman Natalya Timakova dismissed the investigation, which quickly reached 14 million youtube views-such as a “propagandal outbreak,” but Medvedev has become the target of streets protests.
In 2020, he abruptly resigned as Prime Minister, while Putin began a constitutional reform to consolidate his power.
Since then, his seat on the Security Council, Medvedev has fired a series of xenophobic and offensive attacks on Ukrainians and Western leaders. It has 1.7 million registrants on Telegram and X -accounts in Russian and English with a total of almost 7 million followers.
In a speech earlier this year, Medvedev exhibited an image depicting Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as puppets of Muppets and asked the “destruction of the neo -Nazi regime of Kiev”.
He often evokes the spectrum of Nazism, saying this year that the new German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, had “suggested an attack on the Crimea Bridge. Think twice, Nazi!”
No Kremlin paper
Medvedev does not hesitate to shake the nuclear saber. In 2022, he stated that “the idea of punishing a country that has one of the greatest nuclear abilities is absurd and potentially represents a threat to the existence of humanity.”
Despite the extravagant rhetoric, analysts say Medvedev has a role calculated in the strategy of.
The Institute for the Study of War states that it is used to “amplify inflammatory rhetoric projected to generate panic and fear among Western decision makers,” as part of “an informational strategy coordinated and from top to bottom”.
But commentators warn that their statements should not be taken to the letter.
Referring to this week’s exchange of barbs, Anatol Lieven of Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, classified both Medvedev’s comments and Trump’s response and “pure theater”.
“Having abstained from the use of nuclear weapons in the last three years, Russia will obviously not launch them in response to a new round of US sanctions,” Lieven said.
