MOSCOW, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an
ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, warned the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) on Thursday that the defeat of Russia in Ukraine could
trigger a nuclear war.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Medvedev has repeatedly raised the threat of
a nuclear apocalypse, but his admission now of the possibility of Russia's
defeat indicates the level of Moscow's concern over increased Western
weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

"The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear
war," Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Putin's powerful security
council, said in a post on Telegram.

"Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate
depends," said Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-ally-medvedev-warns-nuclear-war-if-russia-defeated-ukraine-2023-01-19/

Medvedev said NATO and other defence leaders, due to meet at Ramstein Air
Base in Germany on Friday to talk about strategy and support for the
West's attempt to defeat Russia in Ukraine, should think about the risks
of their policy.

Russia and the United States, by far the largest nuclear powers, hold
around 90% of the world's nuclear warheads. Putin is the ultimate decision
maker on the use of nuclear weapons.

Asked if Medvedev's remarks signified that Russia was escalating the
crisis to a new level, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "No, it
absolutely does not mean that."

He said Medvedev's remarks were in full accordance with Russia's nuclear
doctrine which allows for a nuclear strike after "aggression against the
Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of
the state is threatened".

While NATO has conventional military superiority over Russia, when it
comes to nuclear weapons, Russia has nuclear superiority over the alliance
in Europe.

Putin casts Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine as an
existential battle with an aggressive and arrogant West, and has said that
Russia will use all available means to protect itself and its people
against any aggressor.

NOT BACKING DOWN

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest
European conflicts since World War Two and the biggest confrontation
between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The United States and its allies have condemned Russia's invasion of
Ukraine as an imperial land grab, while Ukraine has vowed to fight until
the last Russian soldier is ejected from its territory.

Since a grim New Year's Eve message describing the West as Russia's true
enemy in the war on Ukraine, Putin has sent several signals that Russia
will not back down. He has dispatched hypersonic missiles to the Atlantic
and appointed his top general to run the war.

Putin said on Wednesday that Russia's powerful military-industrial complex
was ramping up production and was one of the main reasons why his country
would prevail in Ukraine.

Washington has not detailed in public what it would do if Putin ordered
what would be the first use of nuclear weapons in war since the United
States unleashed the first atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns cautioned Putin's
spy chief Sergei Naryshkin in November about the consequences of any use
of nuclear weapons by Russia, U.S. officials said at the time.

Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads while the United States has 5,428, China
350, France 290 and the United Kingdom 225, according to the Federation of
American Scientists.

Medvedev, 57, who once presented himself as a reformer who was ready to
work with the United States to liberalise Russia, has recast himself since
the war as the most publicly hawkish member of Putin's circle.

He said that the nuclear risks of the Ukraine crisis should be obvious to
any Western politicians who had "preserved at least some traces of
intelligence".

### - ahem (cough-cough) so as you were erm, SAYING... thang?? (riiiight
:)))

better suck it up good dude... coz unless all these 'bozos' cease their
war-mongering crap - and that includes YOU too sport! - were ALL gonna get
right royally nuked! (go-preach THAT to your 2000-odd twit-followers why
don'tcha, instead of sellin' 'em all a bunch of misleading emotive
propaganda/lies that's prolly only gonna get everyony killed in a nuclear
fuckin' holocaust!)

so, are we back on the same page now? (smile)

glad you could make it buddy... so keep cool and just stay the fuck awake
ffs, time is gettin' short! plus if'n ya wants to actually make it into
'Valhalla' then you're gonna have to be a whole heap MORE awake (about
shit) than your are right now! so stay the fuck awake and BE cool...

(btw: cool = calm, clear & collected)

;)