Kremlin Responds to Trump’s Submarine Move, Urges Caution on Nuclear Rhetoric

Moscow appeared to play down the significance and said Russia was not looking to get into a spat with the American president.

The Kremlin in Moscow on April 20, 2020. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

The Russian government on Aug. 4 responded to President Donald Trump’s moving of two nuclear submarines closer to its territory in response to comments made by a former Russian president.

Trump said on Aug. 1 that he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be moved to “the appropriate regions” in response to what he called  “highly provocative” statements by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Nuclear-capable vessels are “in the region” of Russia, Trump said, although he did not go into details.

While he said the nuclear submarine repositioning came in response to Medvedev’s remarks, he did not elaborate on what the former Russian president said.

However, he was likely referring to a post on Telegram from Medvedev that noted that Russia has a “dead hand” system that automatically activates nuclear weapons if the country’s leadership were to fall.

In its first public response to Trump’s order, Moscow appeared to play down the significance and said Russia was not looking to get into a spat with the American president.

“In this case, it is obvious that American submarines are already on combat duty. This is a constant process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Aug. 4, according to state-run media outlet RT.

Peskov said that Russia does not want to “get involved in such a controversy in any way” and that it is “very careful about any statements related to nuclear issues.” He said that Moscow is “very attentive to the topic of nuclear non-proliferation.”

“We believe that everyone should be very, very careful with nuclear rhetoric,” the longtime Kremlin spokesman said.

“We do not believe that we are talking about any escalation now. It is clear that very complex, very sensitive issues are being discussed, which, of course, are perceived very emotionally by many people.”

Peskov declined to answer directly when asked whether the Kremlin had asked Medvedev to tone down his online statements.

“The main thing, of course, is the position of President Putin,” he said.

Trump has warned that he would impose more sanctions on Russia and tariffs on its oil-buying partners, including India and China. He gave Russian President Vladimir Putin until Aug. 8 to agree to take steps to end the more than three-year war in Ukraine.

Putin said this past week that peace talks had made some progress but that Russia had the momentum in the war. This suggested no shift in his position despite the deadline.

On the morning of Aug. 4, Trump said in a Truth Social post that he believes that India is purchasing “massive amounts of Russian oil” and then “selling it on the open market for big profits” and that India does not “care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine.”

“Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India,” he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.