Moscow appeared to play down the significance and said Russia was not looking to get into a spat with the American president.
The Russian government on Aug. 4 responded to President Donald Trump’s moving 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 Trump 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 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 Monday, according to state-run media outlet RT.
Peskov added 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 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 stated.
