MOSCOW (Reuters) -Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that the West was practically waging a full-scale war against Russia and that Moscow should respond in full and, if necessary, launch preemptive strikes, the TASS state news agency reported.
Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, cast himself as a liberal moderniser when he was president from 2008-2012, but has since emerged as an anti-Western Kremlin hawk. Diplomats say his remarks give an indication of thinking among some within the political elite.
“What is happening today is a proxy war, but in essence it is a full-scale war (launches of Western missiles, satellite intelligence, etc), sanctions packages, loud statements about the militarisation of Europe.
“It’s another attempt to destroy the ‘historical anomaly’ hated by the West – Russia, our country,” TASS cited Medvedev – who accused the West of trying to undermine Moscow for centuries – as saying.
“We need to act accordingly. To respond in full. And if necessary, launch preemptive strikes,” Medvedev was quoted as saying, adding that many in the West had treachery in their blood and an outdated view of their own superiority.
The U.S.-led NATO military alliance casts Russia as a major threat and politicians across Western Europe have said that Russia, which in 2022 sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, could one day attack a member of NATO.
Medvedev dismissed claims that Russia could one day attack NATO or Europe as complete rubbish, noting that President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly rejected such assertions too.
“The statements of Western politicians on this topic are complete nonsense. I would add that this nonsense is being deliberately thrown into the information space in order to destabilise an already difficult situation. This is another flank of the West’s open war against us,” he said.
Russia and the United States are by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers, with about 87% of all nuclear weapons, followed by China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Andrew Osborn)
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