The Russian word for “bear” is “medved ” — and it appears that the loud-mouthed “bear” in the Kremlin, Dmitry Medvedev, may finally have roared once too often for his own good.

Because it sounds, from today’s reports, as though Papa Bear Vladimir Putin is trying to do a bit of damage control after Little Dima’s latest temper tantrum.

What happened is this:

> On July 30th, in response to Donald Trump’s threat of further sanctions if Putin failed to meet an August 8th deadline, the Kremlin said they were “taking measures to counteract all of this or even turn it to our own advantage.”

> Trump called Russia’s continuation of the war in Ukaine “disgusting” and “sad.”

> Then Medvedev chimed in with an unsolicited comment that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war” — the first public use of the “W” word from the nation that still refers to its invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation.”

> On the 31st, not satisfied that he’d sounded hawkish enough, Medvedev gave an encore performance, warning of a “dead hand” action — a reference to Russia’s codename for its retaliatory nuclear strikes control system. Suddenly, the “N” word had been dropped.

> And Trump, never to be trumped, called Medvedev “the failed former president of Russia, who thinks he’s still president,” and cautioned him to “watch his words … he’s entering very dangerous territory!” . . . later adding that “words have meaning.” (While certainly appropriate in this case, I’m sure Trump completely missed the irony of those last words issuing from a mouth that itself has no filter. But I digress.)

> Trump then, on August 1st, said he was ordering two U.S. nuclear submarines (not specifying whether they were nuclear-powered or nuclear-capable) to be repositioned in unnamed, “appropriate” locations closer to Russian territory.

Now it was becoming clear that someone had to come to their senses before the U.S. and Russia began lobbing nuclear missiles at each other across the Bering Strait. Luckily, Putin was alert to the problem, and had his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, make a statement to the press:

“In this case, it is obvious that American submarines are already on combat duty. This is an ongoing process, that’s the first thing. But in general, of course, we would not want to get involved in such a controversy and would not want to comment on it in any way. Of course, we believe that everyone should be very, very careful with nuclear rhetoric.” [Dmitry Antonov and Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, August 4, 2025.]

And, without specifically mentioning Medvedev’s comments, Peskov added that, while “in every country members of the leadership … have different points of view,” Russian policy is dictated by Putin alone. [Laura Gozzi, BBC News, August 4, 2025.]

Well said, comrades.

At this point, I would venture a guess that Dmitry Medvedev — to say the very least — is not having his best week at work. He has not publicly reacted to Trump’s last response, and has not been active on X since sending the controversial post.

In fact, if he were to ask my advice, I might recommend posting his resume on LinkedIn . . . if it isn’t already too late.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/4/25