Medvedev’s ‘Dead Hand’ Message to Trump To Forget About ‘Decapitation’ of Moscow
Aug. 1—The Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, also a former President of Russia, delivered a chilling message July 31 in response to what U.S. President Donald Trump might have thought was a business-as-usual threat. It started with the reckless U.S. Sen. Lindsey “Cracker” Graham’s declaring that Russia will be “sadly mistaken” if they fail to obey Trump’s order to negotiate, within his newly imposed 10-12 day limit. Medvedev’s response was that Russia decides when it will negotiate.
That provoked Trump to post on Truth Social his exasperation that India, in particular, would continue trading with Russia, and not submit to Trump’s “sanctions” warfare: “I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India; their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory.”
That last comment prompted Medvedev to invoke the dreaded “Dead Hand,” Russia’s ultimate thermonuclear threat from Soviet days: Should a pre-emptive strike wipe out the leadership in Moscow, special Russian missiles would automatically deploy. Instead of warheads, these missiles carry communication devices designed to transmit nuclear launch codes. They would issue orders to Russia’s nuclear missile fleet to launch a full nuclear war exchange. The leadership might be dead, but the order would go out, regardless—blowing up, literally, the conceit that a pre-emptive strike would leave its initiators alive and well.
Medvedev’s construction read: “If some words from the former president of Russia trigger such a nervous reaction from the high-and-mighty president of the United States, then Russia is doing everything right and will continue to proceed along its own path. As for the ‘dead economies’ of India and Russia and the ‘entering of dangerous territory’—well, (Trump) should recall his favorite films about the walking dead, and also how dangerous the ‘Dead Hand’ can be.” [Emphasis in original Russian.]
Former UN weapons inspector and critic of war policies Scott Ritter immediately explained the reason and credibility of Medvedev’s message today in his post “Trump and Medvedev’s Dangerous Exchange of Words.” He explained:
“President Trump has become enthralled with the Israeli ‘Nasrallah’ solution—leadership decapitation and middle management disruption, designed to bring about the rapid collapse of a government/system.
“It was tried—and failed—in Iran.
“But Trump is being advised by Russophobes who believe that the U.S. can successfully implement such a plan against Russia.
“This plan begins with sanctions, as all such plans do.
“It ends with a decapitation strike on Moscow.
“Trump’s imagined conversation with Putin, where he threatened to ‘bomb the sh•t out of Moscow,’ is indicative of the President’s thinking in this regard.
“The preferred decapitation strike is done using B-52 bombers launching cruise missiles, accompanied by Trident missiles launched from Ohio-class submarines operating off the coast of Russia, allowing for a flatter trajectory flight and shorter flight time.”
“Medvedev’s comment about the”Dead Hand" indicates that Russia is well aware of Trump’s plans.
“The ‘Dead Hand,’ or Perimeter system, is a long-standing fail-safe mechanism/plan which guarantees a full-scale nuclear retaliation in case any nation is foolish enough to try a decapitation strike. …
“Medvedev’s mentioning of it is a not-to-gentle reminder to Trump and his planners that it is suicide to think of a preemptive decapitation strike against Russia.
“Hopefully this message gets through.
“Otherwise, the ‘Walking Dead’ allusion made by Medvedev will be the future of the United States and the world.”