“There can be no winner in a nuclear war,” Peskov added. “This is probably the key premise we rely on. We do not think there is talk of any escalation.”
Since ordering the 2022 invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin has often intimated that Moscow could deploy nuclear weapons, while other officials, including Medvedev, and commentators close to the Kremlin have issued hyperbolic threats referencing Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which is the world’s largest.
Peskov’s effort to play down the confrontation comes before a likely visit to Russia this week by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who has met Putin four times in a so-far-unsuccessful bid to halt Russia’s war.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that the submarines are “in the region”.
Last week, responding to Medvedev on social media, Trump denounced the Russian’s “highly provocative statements”, which he said led him to dispatch 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,” Trump continued, capping an intensifying exchange. “I hope this will not be one of those instances.”
Medvedev, whose relevance in Russia has waned since he left the Prime Minister’s office in 2020, now often plays the role of social media provocateur.
Russia’s nuclear arsenal is central to Putin’s effort to posture the country as a global power, and to reinforce his conviction, shared by many Russian citizens, that Russia can never be defeated in war.
On Sunday, Trump said he may send Witkoff to Russia on Wednesday or Thursday at Moscow’s request, before imposing new sanctions. Trump has cautioned that the new sanctions would probably not deter Russia’s war effort.
After Trump last week shortened the deadline for agreement on a ceasefire to August 8, Medvedev warned on social media that every Trump ultimatum was a step closer to war between the United States and Russia.
Trump admonished Medvedev to “watch his words”, then Medvedev responded on Thursday with an emoji of laughter through tears and the nuclear threat – warning Trump of the dangers of the “Dead Hand”.
On Friday afternoon, Trump announced he would reposition two nuclear submarines. “A threat was made… so we just have to be very careful,” he said, referring to Medvedev, adding: “We’re going to protect our people.”
Peskov distanced himself on Monday from Medvedev’s rhetoric, saying that people should look to Putin instead.
“In our country, foreign policy is formulated by the head of state, President Putin,” Peskov said. He declined to comment on whether the Kremlin would tell Medvedev to tone down his rhetoric.
Russia has sharpened its tone toward Trump in recent weeks after US officials indicated he is running out of patience with Putin’s reluctance to compromise on his maximalist conditions to end the war, despite key concessions suggested by the United States, including keeping Ukraine out of Nato and allowing Moscow to keep the territory it has annexed illegally in Ukraine.
In his meetings with Putin and other Russians, Witkoff has at times appeared to misread the Kremlin’s demands, commenting that he saw Russia’s retention of the territories it occupies as key to the war’s resolution. Putin, however, consistently insists on a broader subjugation of Ukraine, including slashing the size of its military, effectively undercutting Ukrainian sovereignty.
On Friday, Putin said in a comment that appeared directed at Trump that Russia’s conditions to end the war had not changed and declared that any disappointment about the peace process was due to “excessive expectations”.
Putin said Russia’s massive losses in Ukraine – likely, by this summer, to exceed 1 million soldiers killed and wounded, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies – were not in vain.
“We do not have a single loss in vain,” he told journalists on Valaam Island in northwestern Russia after visiting a monastery.
Since the 2022 invasion, Moscow has calibrated its nuclear threat to deter Western support for Ukraine, in particular deliveries of Western missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory. Denied those, Ukraine has used drone strikes on distant targets.
These threats have, at times, been delivered directly by Putin, but also, at other times, by senior Russian officials who offer a level of deniability, including Medvedev.
Pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov on Sunday wrote that Witkoff’s likely visit was the “last chance” to reach an agreement between Moscow and Washington before Trump’s deadline on a ceasefire expires August 8.
He wrote on Telegram that Putin may offer a partial ceasefire, ending missile and drone attacks.
Robyn Dixon is a foreign correspondent on her third stint in Russia, after almost a decade reporting there beginning in the early 1990s.
