Latest news with #DmitriMedvedev
France 24
6 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Medvedev vs Trump: Russia's ex-president becomes Putin's provocateur-in-chief
Russia 's ex-president Dmitri Medvedev found his way back into the headlines when his belligerent social media exchange with US President Donald Trump led to the repositioning on August 1 of two US nuclear submarines to what Trump called 'appropriate regions'. Medvedev has recently become an ultra-nationalist provocateur on social media, especially since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It's a major metamorphosis for a politician who during his time as president, from 2008 to 2012, embodied the liberal face of Russia. Accustomed to outrageous statements 'Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences,' Trump posted on his Truth Social platform after announcing his decision to re-deploy two submarines. Medvedev had taken exception to Trump imposing a new 10-day deadline for Russia to end its war in Ukraine, and posted that Trump was "playing the ultimatum game with Russia… Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war." On X, the former Russian president raised the prospect of a third World War if Trump persisted in trying to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in peace negotiations with Ukraine. On Telegram, Medvedev referred to "Dead Hand' – the Soviet Union's system for launching a nuclear strike. Trump seems to have decided that he had had enough. But given Medvedev's long history of sabre rattling, Trump's reaction of 'taking the bait' instead of ignoring the posts is a bit puzzling, says Stephen Hall, a specialist in Russian politics at the University of Bath. Medvedev is a 'loose cannon ... trying to make himself relevant,' says Jenny Mathers, a specialist in Russian security issues at Aberystwyth University in the UK. If you want to know what Putin is thinking and above all 'what he wants to the world to hear', it's not Medvedev you should be listening to, but rather Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Mathers says. Medvedev has made a habit of making outrageous statements in recent years, following his term as president and then as prime minister from 2012 to 2020. Medvedev has 1.7 million subscribers on Telegram, where he his posts tend to be aggressively nationalistic. He describes Ursula von der Leyen, the German President of the European Commission, as a 'crazy old lady'. France is accused of being nostalgic for the Vichy regime, while the Baltic states are simply described as 'wretched'. These insults are from recent posts seen by more than three million Telegram users. Why so much animosity? Medvedev boasts that 'hatred is the most important weapon' in the battle against what he calls European 'Russophobia'. He has always embodied a more extreme version of the image that Putin wanted to project to the world, Mathers says. 'So when Putin was being slightly liberal, Medvedev was quite a bit more so,' she says. The two faces of Dmitri Medvedev When Medvedev was designated to take over as Russian president in 2008, Putin had decided it was time for a rapprochement with the US and then president Barack Obama. 'His presidency was about wanting to reach out to the US, wanting to strike deals and have good relations,' Mathers says. Kremlin strategists successfully portrayed Medvedev as embodying a more modern Russia in tune with the West, someone who 'knew how to use Twitter and an iPad', Hall says. In Putin's eyes, Medvedev also had another advantage: he did not belong to the circle of ' siloviki ', agents of the Russian police and intelligence services. 'He's a lawyer by training, so he probably is a moderniser by the standards of Russia, or at least of the current Russian regime,' Hall says. 01:46 Putin's return as Russian president in 2012 marked the beginning of a more authoritarian and imperialist turn for Russia. Since then, Medvedev has discarded any semblance of moderation. 'He now says things that are much more extreme than what Putin says," Mathers says. For Hall, his nationalistic stance is partly a question of 'political survival". Medvedev's career has followed a downward trajectory since 2012. After his term as president, he was named Putin's prime minister, only to end up as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council. Though he has been sidelined, he at least has 'an official position that allows him to speak out on matters of national security', says Mathers. Given his current job, his responsibilities are limited, says Hall. 'As deputy of the Security Council he is possibly very good at pushing paper around and setting up meetings' and having tea with officials like Nikolai Patrushev and Sergei Shoigu, the two secretaries-general of the Security Council. 'But other than that, he doesn't play a huge role." To provoke is to win? By being strident, Medvedev hopes to prove that he is still someone who counts in politics and that he can be useful. 'I think at the moment Medvedev is taking the Zhirinovsky role,' says Hall, referring to late ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whoseextremist and provocative declarations served as a way for the Kremlin to gauge what viewpoints might be accepted by the public. On the international stage, the Kremlin can let its new provocateur-in-chief Medvedev act without too much risk. After all, he doesn't hold a very important position, says Mathers. So if one of his statements goes too far, 'Putin can either ignore what he says' or indicate that it does not reflect the official position of Russia. The Kremlin can also hope that Medvedev's bellicose outbursts will prompt the West or a Western country to limit its support for Ukraine – better safe than sorry. Moscow knows that Western democracies cannot afford to completely ignore Medvedev's threats, even if 99 percent of the time, talk of nuclear Armageddon is just bluster, notes Hall. Western governments cannot totally rule out the possibility that Russia will "actually use nuclear weapons", he says. Has Medvedev managed to permanently antagonise Trump? That remains to be seen. The US president has for some time stepped up his rhetoric and threatened more concrete action against Russia. But Trump could hardly attack Putin directly, says Hall, because in order to end the war in Ukraine, 'he needs Putin to negotiate". In this respect, Medvedev appeared to be an ideal target for Trump's anger. He has the advantage of being a former president, notes Hall – and so has the stature to be an interlocutor in diplomatic exchanges with Trump via social media.
Irish Times
03-08-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on Trump and Putin: the dangerous nuclear backdrop
When Donald Trump ordered two US nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia over the weekend in response to online nuclear threats from Russia's former president, Dmitri Medvedev, a global, collective frisson of fear was understandable. The US President's move came as part of a verbal exchange with Moscow over a new 10-day deadline to Vladimir Putin to commit to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face 'secondary sanctions' against countries that buy Russian oil. And yet, the strategic significance of the deployment is unclear – Trump did not clarify whether the submarines were nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed, and, even if the latter, how their redeployment would enhance the ability they already have, wherever they are, to deliver their deadly payloads against Russia. This symbolic act is thus largely a rhetorical reminder to the Russian President of the US president's newfound, belated determination to pursue some form of peace in Ukraine and his expectation that Putin will fall into line. So far the Russian president has shown no intention whatsoever to do so. READ MORE The respective nuclear postures, however, remain an important and dangerous backdrop to the confrontation between the superpowers. Both Russian and US thresholds for the use of nuclear weapons, particularly their first-use, have long been deliberately ambiguous – a very Trump-like ambiguity. Unlike a no-first-use policy, which commits a country only to retaliate in response to a nuclear attack, ambiguity, it is argued, forces adversaries to consider the possibility that any aggression could provoke a devastating nuclear response, even in a non-nuclear conflict. A first-use option, it is said, deters conventional aggressors who may believe that their superior non-nuclear forces could succeed. Both the US's and Russia's nuclear doctrines, the latter revised as recently as last year, do not limit their options to responses to nuclear attack by others .The US doctrine allows considerable latitude. It says: 'The US would only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the US or its Allies and partners.' The Russians reserve the right to employ nuclear arms 'in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation involving the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is under threat.' Russia is also reported to have in place a automatic system to launch nuclear missiles if the country's leaders have been killed by a strike from another state. And both leave the ultimate decision to press the nuclear button not to parliaments, but to their two presidents , Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
New York Times
02-08-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Lashing Out Over Russia and Jobs Data, Trump Displays His Volatile Side
Despite slowing over the first half of the year, the U.S. economy has remained reasonably healthy. Yet when the jobs report for July was released on Friday, showing a substantial slowdown in hiring, President Trump lashed out, claiming the figures were rigged and firing the head of the government agency that produces them. Dmitri Medvedev was once president of Russia but now is little more than the Kremlin's favorite online troll. Yet when he got under Mr. Trump's skin with provocative posts about nuclear war, Mr. Trump, already increasingly infuriated by President Vladimir V. Putin's unwillingness to work with him to end the war in Ukraine, responded on Friday as if a real superpower conflict could be brewing, ordering submarines into position to guard against any threat. Just days earlier, Mr. Trump had returned to the United States from a golf trip happily flexing his political and diplomatic power. A capitulating Congress had passed his signature domestic policy legislation, despite concerns over its deep cuts to the social safety net. The European Union caved to Mr. Trump and his threat of tariffs by announcing a trade deal during the president's trip to Scotland. Emboldened, Mr. Trump moved ahead with sweeping tariffs that could reshape the world economy. But on Friday, Mr. Trump, confronted with foes and facts that he could not easily control, displayed another side of himself, responding with disproportionate intensity and a distinct impatience. His actions were part of a pattern in which he has shown growing intolerance toward those who will not bend to his will. Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair who has defied Mr. Trump's demands for interest rate cuts, has been subject to withering and relentless criticism and insults from the president. Mr. Trump has assailed those of his own supporters who have refused to drop their demands for release of the Epstein files. But his actions on Friday were especially striking because they involved fiery reactions to two of the biggest issues on his plate. Russia under Mr. Putin, once viewed by Mr. Trump as a partner in solving big problems, has left Mr. Trump frustrated and facing mocking reminders of his pledge that he could bring the war in Ukraine to an end on his first day in office. With Mr. Putin now responding to Mr. Trump's peace efforts by launching more attacks and brushing off threats of further U.S. sanctions, Mr. Trump has turned against him — and on Friday used his commander in chief powers to respond to baiting posts from one of Mr. Putin's online attack dogs. Soon after disclosing on his social media platform that he had ordered nuclear submarines 'to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,' Mr. Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, claiming that the employment numbers were being massaged to make him look bad. 'I think he deliberately surrounded himself with yes men and yes women,' said John R. Bolton, a former national security adviser to Mr. Trump. 'It's more evidence he's not fit to be president. This is not the way a president responds to either one of these situations.' In firing the commissioner of the statistics bureau, Erika McEntarfer, who was confirmed on a bipartisan basis in 2024, Mr. Trump accused her of a long pattern of rigging the job numbers to hurt him before and after the 2024 election, a claim dismissed by economists across the political spectrum. 'I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election,' Mr. Trump said as he left the White House on Friday. 'And there were other times. So you know what I did? I fired her, and you know what I did? The right thing.' The move cemented many fears that Mr. Trump, who has already fired inspectors general and installed loyalists in the Justice Department, would eventually root out government officials who report politically inconvenient data or intimidate them from publicly disclosing bad news. William W. Beach, a former head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics who was nominated by Mr. Trump during his first term, described the firing as 'groundless' and warned that it sets 'a dangerous precedent.' 'This escalates the president's unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system,' Mr. Beach said in a joint statement with other statisticians. 'The president seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.' Mr. Trump similarly showed little caution earlier in the day in responding to Mr. Medvedev, who had said in a social media post that Mr. Trump should imagine the apocalyptic television series 'The Walking Dead' and noted the Soviet Union's system for launching a nuclear strike. 'Words are very important,' Mr. Trump said. 'And can often lead to unintended consequences. I hope this will not be one of those instances.' Mr. Bolton said it was the president who needed to show more discipline. 'He may not even understand what he's doing,' Mr. Bolton said. 'It's so natural to him to say outrageous things that he's incapable of thinking about the strategic consequences.' Having surrounded himself with aides unwilling to challenge his impulses, Mr. Trump faces no constraints on lashing out impulsively, Mr. Bolton said. 'Trump is not deterred by reality,' Mr. Bolton said. 'He just says what he wants to say.' Mr. Trump's allies say he is doing exactly what he said he would do during the campaign: use his power and enlist loyal aides to enact an agenda that he promised. They say his lack of hesitancy when speaking publicly is refreshing to Americans. And they argue that he is simply using all the powers the Constitution gives the president. But Mr. Trump has shown time and time again in his second term that he is willing to use the tools of the federal government to settle his own personal grievances and political scores. Earlier in the week, Mr. Trump imposed sanctions — an option usually reserved as a middle ground between diplomacy and military action — on a Brazilian Supreme Court justice overseeing the case against Jair Bolsonaro, a former president of Brazil ideologically aligned with Mr. Trump. Mr. Bolsonaro is accused of seeking to overturn the 2022 vote that ousted him, dismantle courts and hand special powers to the military. After Mr. Bolsonaro left office, thousands of his supporters ransacked government buildings in Brazil's capital, in an episode that echoed the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Bolsonaro's son had been pushing senior White House officials to place sanctions on the Brazilian judge. In attacking Mr. Powell, the Fed chair, Mr. Trump has sought to accuse him of mismanaging an expensive renovation of the central bank's headquarters. But when Mr. Trump showed up at the building recently to make his case, Mr. Powell, in a low-key but remarkable display of defiance, publicly challenged cost figures being cited by the president. On Friday, with the new jobs numbers suggesting that the economy is slowing on Mr. Trump's watch, the president once again called on Mr. Powell to resign.
Forbes
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Nuclear Submarines Moved Near Russia On Trump's Order
After trading barbs overnight with former Russian leader Dmitri A. Medvedev, President Donald Trump has ordered nuclear submarines to be positioned in 'the appropriate regions' near Russia 'just in case.' President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House on July 14, 2025. Getty Images Trump on Friday announced the movement of the submarines on Truth Social after sparring online with Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, and telling Russia Tuesday it had "10 days from today" to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or be hit with tariffs. Medvedev on Monday accused Trump of engaging in a "game of ultimatums" and the American president told him to "watch his words"—a sentiment that was met with a reminder from Medvedev that Russia possesses Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort. Trump on Friday said he'd ordered the movement of the submarines 'just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that. Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.' This is a developing story and will be updated. Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We're launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day's headlines. Text 'Alerts' to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here :
The Independent
01-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Ukraine has prised Trump away from the Kremlin with minerals deal in triumph of diplomacy
Russia greeted a mineral deal signed between the United States and Ukraine with glee through gritted teeth. Dmitri Medvedev, the former president, said the deal means Ukraine 'will have to pay for military supplies with the national wealth of a disappearing country'. It does not. It does mean that, for the first time this year, the US now sees Ukraine as a financial asset. Switching the White House perception of the country - as one that brought the Russian invasion on itself, was risking World War III, and is losing the war - to one where American financial skin is in the game has been a triumph of Ukrainian diplomacy. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary who first presented Kyiv with a deal that was nothing short of a mafia protection racket shakedown said this: 'This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term'. A free and sovereign Ukraine is a long way from the country that Donald Trump said earlier this year might not exist in the future. But critically Julia Svryrydenko, the first prime Minister of Ukraine who signed the deal, said on X: 'The United States will contribute to the Fund. In addition to direct financial contributions, it may also provide NEW assistance — for example, air defense systems for Ukraine'. America already does that. But Trump had threatened to take away all military assistance. He also suspended the US intelligence feed to Kyiv when Vladimir Putin launched his attack to free Kursk in March. Saying that more air defence is on its way, and agreeing a deal that gives Trump financial skin in the game is a boon to Ukraine and a blow to the Kremlin. 'It is an agreement that reaffirms the United States of America's commitment to Ukraine's security, recovery, and reconstruction,' Svryrydenko said. She is right – for now. The Ukrainians said that the agreement to share future profits on the 50-50 split on the new exploitation of mineral reserves through a jointly run fund would also ensure that existing state and private enterprises were outside the agreement. They also hope to be able to persuade the US that, for ten years, profits would be re-invested in Ukraine not exported back to America. Ukraine's mineral resources are underdeveloped. In the eastern parts of the Donbas, occupied by Russia since 2014/15, huge coal mines have been taken over by the Kremlin, or shuttered. But elsewhere the nation could provide an alternative source of rare earth and other minerals that are critical for high technology production. It could supply the West with lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite and nickel. It also has one of Europe's largest confirmed reserves, estimated at 500,000 tonnes of lithium - vital for batteries, ceramics, and glass. The country has titanium still underground, mostly located in its northwestern and central regions, while lithium is found in the centre, east and southeast. The reserves of graphite, a key component in electric vehicle batteries and nuclear reactors, represent 20% of global resources. The deposits are in the centre and west – all free of Russian troops. Trump's preoccupation with the resources still unlocked in Greenland are a strong indication that he is keen to secure American access to Ukraine's minerals. The hope in Kyiv is that he may now be more keen to defend them against Russia. On Wednesday Trump said that he didn't want to look 'foolish' in sending US aid to defend Ukraine against Russia's invasion. This deal gives him a 'win' – he had been made to feel that America will gain from its investment in Kyiv – which amounts to about $130 billion. A great deal of that has been in weapons and ammunition – most of which has actually been spent on old weapons or manufacturing new equipment in the US. Nonetheless by striking the mineral deal, Trump has been prised away from the embrace of Putin because he sees more immediate financial and personal profit now in Kyiv. He is fickle and fissile and there will be many opportunities to accidentally drive him back into the arms of Moscow where he feels safe and celebrated after years of flattery by the Kremlin. He has not acted on principle in defending a young democracy against a foreign invasion and he has not agreed the deal because it binds America back into the fabric of Europe after ripping it out. But he is on board – which means Volodymyr Zelensky has outplayed the master manipulator Putin.
