‘Treachery in its blood’: Putin’s loyal attack dog threatens pre-emptive strikes on the ‘sick, very outdated’ West

Dmitry Medvedev, who used to be Russia’s president and now serves as deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, gave a strong warning on Thursday. He said that while Russia does not plan to attack NATO or Europe, it must be ready to fight back hard, including by striking first, if the West makes the war in Ukraine worse.

Medvedev’s comments, found by Reuters, highlight how Moscow sees its clash with the West growing more serious. This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump demanded a peace deal within 50 days. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump have warned before about how the war in Ukraine could escalate, calling it a proxy fight between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.

Medvedev called claims from NATO and Western European leaders that Russia wants to attack a member of the U.S.-led military alliance “total nonsense” and said it was a deliberate move to increase tensions. He insisted that Russia must “act accordingly” and “respond fully,” adding that it should “if necessary, launch preemptive strikes.”

Russia isn’t backing down, it’s getting more aggressive

He also accused many in the West of having “treachery in its blood” and holding on to an “old-fashioned belief in their own superiority.” When asked about Medvedev’s statements, the Kremlin said he was sharing his own views and that his worries about the “confrontational” situation in Europe were reasonable.

Medvedev, who was once seen as a reformer open to liberal ideas during his time as president from 2008 to 2012, has now become one of the Kremlin’s most vocal critics of the West. Diplomats often see his statements as a sign of what some parts of Russia’s political leadership are thinking.

He called the current conflict a “proxy war,” but said that “in reality, it is a full-scale war,” pointing to Western missile attacks, satellite intelligence, sanctions, and strong talk about militarizing Europe. He ended by saying it was “another effort to destroy what the West hates – the ‘historical anomaly’ of Russia, our country.”

The United States estimates that 1.2 million people have been hurt or killed in the Ukraine war. Russia and the United States together have about 87% of all nuclear weapons in the world. This is not good when Trump and Putin’s relationship keeps deteriorating.