Cliff Notes
- Dmitry Medvedev’s remarks indicate a firm commitment to retaliate for the recent drone attack, highlighting the Kremlin’s hawkish stance.
- The delayed response of nearly 48 hours suggests Moscow’s reluctance to publicly address what they perceive as a humiliating incident.
- Medvedev’s threats, while intense, reflect an uncertain strategy from Russia regarding their next steps in response to Ukraine.
Ukraine war latest: Kyiv claims underwater strike on Kerch Bridge; Putin ally warns of Russian ‘retribution’ after Ukrainian raid | World News
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By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
Dmitry Medvedev is the first senior Russian official to comment on Sunday’s drone attack, and his words are predictably combative.
“Retribution is inevitable,” he warned on Telegram, adding: “Everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up, and those who must be eliminated will be.”
The former Russian leader, who was seen as a moderniser during his 2008-2012 presidency, is now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, where he has reinvented himself as Vladimir Putin’s most hawkish hardliner, regularly threatening nuclear apocalypse on Ukraine and its Western allies.
Though often outlandish and at times bordering on the absurd, his comments do offer an insight into the more extreme thinking within the Kremlin’s leadership.
In this case, it’s a clear warning that Russia will retaliate.
The most interesting thing about his words, though, is how long it’s taken to type them.
Normally, the fury flows from his fingertips unabated.
But here it’s taken almost 48 hours to respond to something that caused headlines around the world.
And at the time of his post, there still hadn’t been any word from the Kremlin. Extraordinary.
I think it’s a clear sign that Moscow doesn’t want to draw attention to what was a humiliating attack. The more they comment on it, the more prominent it becomes.
It might also be because they are still figuring out how to respond.
Medvedev states what we all knew already – that there will be a riposte at some point.
But we still don’t know what it will be, nor when it will come.
And maybe they don’t either.
Watch Ivor Bennett’s analysis of the Russian media’s response in the video below:
