Category: 2. World

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and prime minister, is back in the limelight.

Last week, United States President Donald Trump warned him to “watch his words” and ordered a repositioning of two US nuclear submarines in response to Medvedev’s online threats.

The repositioning closer to Russia followed “highly provocative statements” from Medvedev, who serves as deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, Trump wrote on his Truth Social network on August 1.

“I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump wrote, without specifying the regions or the submarines’ class.

Medvedev, who, despite his title, has no power to order nuclear strikes, retorted with a gloating remark.

“If some words of Russia’s former president cause such a nervous response from the oh-so-scary US president, it means that Russia is right about everything and will keep going its own way,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

“Let [Trump] remember his favourite movies about the Walking Dead [zombie apocalypse series] and about how dangerous can be the ‘dead hand’ that doesn’t exist naturally,” Medvedev wrote.

The online feud began in mid-July, when Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin, Medvedev’s boss and mentor for three decades, 50 days to make a peace deal with Ukraine.

Medvedev called the ultimatum “theatrical” and said that “Russia didn’t care”.

‘Nuclear weapons are not Moscow’s monopoly’

According to a former Russian diplomat, while Trump’s warnings send a signal to the Kremlin, the “noise” around the submarines has no military significance.

“What matters far more is that Trump’s words served as a reminder – nuclear weapons are not Moscow’s monopoly,” Boris Bondarev, who focused on nuclear non-proliferation and arms control, told Al Jazeera.

Medvedev’s comments reflect Putin’s views – and Trump’s response could return both down to the earth of realpolitik, he added.

“Had such an approach been part of a general strategy to make Putin’s view on the world and his own place in it more adequate, it would have been the beginning of a real end of the war” in Ukraine, said Bondarev, who quit his foreign ministry job to protest against Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“But it seems to me that Donald just uttered [his threat] and doesn’t mean anything serious,” he said.

A pawn in the US-China game

To a Ukrainian military analyst, the Trump-Medvedev feud is part of Moscow’s and Washington’s bigger political games.

“Putin uses Medvedev as a tool to express statements related to nuclear weapons, he doesn’t want to discredit his own good peacekeeper’s name,” Lieutenant-General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said ironically.

In Moscow’s “media spectacle” with Washington, Medvedev plays the “bad cop”, Romanenko told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Trump’s order to reposition the subs is a step to score a diplomatic victory ahead of his summit with China’s Xi Jinping.

The summit may take place on September 3, when Beijing will lavishly celebrate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender that ended World War II.

Putin has already been invited to oversee a military parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, but Trump is still mulling his response.

The online feud may be presented to Xi as a victory of sorts, Romanenko said – along with Moscow’s possible agreement to an air and sea ceasefire.

The agreement will be forced by the heavy damage Ukrainian drones inflicted on Russia’s military depots, transport infrastructure and oil refineries, Romanenko said.

‘Playing the fool’

Trump may not realise that some Russians see Medvedev as a political has-been whose online rants are reportedly fuelled by his worsening alcoholism.

He was elected Russia’s president in 2008, after Putin had completed two consecutive presidential terms and could not run for a third time.

The move and the ensuing propaganda campaign to promote Medvedev’s candidacy were nicknamed a “castling” after the chess term.

It immediately spawned political jokes that ridiculed the real power dynamic between Medvedev and Putin.

In one of them, Putin arrives at a restaurant with Medvedev and orders a steak. The waiter asks, “And what about the vegetable?” referring to the choice of a side dish. After a long look at Medvedev, Putin answers, “The vegetable will have steak, too.”

However, Medvedev cultivated a personal and political image that contrasted with Putin’s.

He started using social networks, met with the rock bands U2 and Deep Purple, and began cautious reforms that made analysts talk about a political thaw and a reset of Russia’s ties with the West.

However, Medvedev’s failed perestroika ended with giant rallies against Putin’s 2012 return to the presidency and massive vote rigging.

The resulting tightening of political screws ended with Putin’s turn to belligerent nationalism and the war in Ukraine.

Five years later, another wave of popular protests throughout Russia followed the release of a documentary about Medvedev’s luxurious, Monaco-sized palatial complex.

The documentary was made by the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny‘s team and got tens of millions of views on YouTube.

At the time, as Medvedev served as prime minister, his approval ratings kept waning.

In 2022, Putin unceremoniously sacked him – and gave him the Security Council job, a sinecure for demoted allies.

The fall from Putin’s grace prompted Medvedev’s transformation into an online troll who posts threats to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations and sabre-rattles Moscow’s nuclear might. Many posts appeared online long after midnight.

‘Degraded’

There are three viewpoints on why Medvedev changed his tune to become the Kremlin’s attack dog, according to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University.

One is that after not being allowed to run for president for the second time in 2012, Medvedev started drinking and “degraded to the current state”, Mitrokhin told Al Jazeera.

The second one is that by “playing fool”, he repeats what Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had done to survive under his ruthless predecessor Joseph Stalin to survive and compete for the Kremlin throne after his boss’s death, Mitrokhin said.

And the third explanation Mitrokhin agrees with is that Medvedev “as a character, has always been very vile and warlike”.

But his aggression was only limited to what Putin allowed him to do – such as nominally order Russia’s 2008 war with ex-Soviet Georgia or be in charge of supplying weaponry to pro-Moscow rebels in southeastern Ukraine in 2014.

Mitrokhin described him as “a very aggressive small man with plenty of psychological complexes – a Napoleon’s syndrome – who has a chance to reveal his ‘inner self’. And he does – with his master’s approval”.

Scientists are also concerned that this announcement is a politically-motivated move in the new international race to the Moon.

“It seems that we’re going back into the old first space race days of competition, which, from a scientific perspective, is a little bit disappointing and concerning,” says Dr Barber.

“Competition can create innovation, but if there’s a narrower focus on national interest and on establishing ownership, then you can lose sight of the bigger picture which is exploring the solar system and beyond,” he adds.

Mr Duffy’s comments about the potential for China and Russia to potentially “declare a keep-out zone” on the Moon appear to be referring to an agreement called the Artemis accords.

In 2020 seven nations signed the agreement to establish principles on how countries should co-operate on the Moon’s surface.

The accords include so-called safety zones to be established around operations and assets that countries build on the Moon.

“If you build a nuclear reactor or or any kind of base on the moon, you can then start claiming that you have a safety zone around it, because you have equipment there,” says Dr Barber.

“To some people, this is tantamount to, ‘we own this bit of the moon, we’re going to operate here and and you can’t come in’,” he explains.

Dr Barber points out that there are hurdles to overcome before placing a nuclear reactor on the Moon for humans to use.

Nasa’s Artemis 3 aims to send humans to the lunar surface in 2027, but it has faced a series of set-backs and uncertainty around funding.

“If you’ve got nuclear power for a base, but you’ve got no way of getting people and equipment there, then it’s not much use,” he added.

“The plans don’t appear very joined up at the moment,” he said.

The US may require foreign nationals from certain countries to pay a $15,000 (£11,300) deposit for a tourist or business visa.

The 12-month pilot programme aims to curb visa overstays “or where screening and vetting information is considered deficient”, according to a notice published by the US state department.

It does not specify which countries are covered by the pilot programme.

The US administration has taken several steps to further President Donald Trump’s agenda of stemming illegal immigration.

Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term to this effect.

The state department notice, published on Tuesday, says: “Aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure (B-1/B-2) and who are nationals of countries identified by the Department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering Citizenship by Investment, if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program.

“Consular officers may require covered non-immigrant visa applicants to post a bond of up to $15,000 as a condition of visa issuance, as determined by the consular officers.”

Since coming to office in January, Trump has signed orders to roll back humanitarian programmes for migrants from certain countries who are already in the US.

The Republican president has also banned foreign nationals from 12 countries from travelling to the US, and imposed partial restrictions on another seven.

His administration has revoked visas for hundreds of international students and detained several others on college campuses across the US, often without any warning or recourse for appeals.

The state department has said it is targeting those who were involved in activities that “run counter” to US national interests.

Many of those targeted have participated in some form of pro-Palestinian activity.

But there have been other cases where cancellations appear to be connected to those with some sort of criminal record, or legal infractions like driving over the speed limit, immigration lawyers have said.

🔊 Listen with AI



Cancel Voice

Published On: Tue, 05 Aug 2025

14:20:42 PKT

(Reuters) – Israel says it will allow gradual and controlled entry of goods to Gaza through local merchants, an Israeli military agency that coordinates aid said on Tuesday, as global monitors say famine is unfolding in the enclave, impacting the hostages Hamas holds.

Israel’s COGAT said a mechanism has been approved by the cabinet to expand the scope of humanitarian aid, allowing the entry of supplies to Gaza through the private sector.

The agency said the approved goods include basic food products, baby food, fruits and vegetables, and hygiene supplies.

“This aims to increase the volume of aid entering the Gaza Strip, while reducing reliance on aid collection by the UN and international organisations,” it added.

It was unclear how this aid operation would work given the widespread destruction in Gaza.

Palestinian and UN officials say Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements – the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war.

Images of starving Palestinians including children have alarmed the world in recent weeks, while a video released by Hamas on Sunday showing an emaciated captive drew sharp criticism from Western powers.

Israel in response to a rising international uproar, announced last week steps to let more aid reach Gaza, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.

Hamas said it was prepared to coordinate with the Red Cross to deliver aid to hostages it holds in Gaza, if Israel permanently opens humanitarian corridors and halts airstrikes during the distribution of aid.

Israel and the United States urged the UN in May to work through an organisation they back, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which employs a US logistics firm run by a former CIA officer and armed US veterans.

The UN refused as it questioned GHF neutrality and accused the distribution model of militarising aid and forcing displacement.

Palestinians were killed near GHF sites where limited aid was distributed, with the UN estimating that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food since May, most near the organisation’s distribution sites.

GHF denies that there have been deadly incidents at its sites, and says the deadliest have been near other aid convoys.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures.

Israel’s offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants.

According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Hamas, thus far, has barred humanitarian organisations from having any kind of access to the hostages and families have little or no details of their conditions.