A top member of Russia's State Duma has played down the redeployment of two US submarines ordered by American President Donald Trump, saying that Russia already possesses a greater number of nuclear-powered submarines currently on active patrol around the world.
Viktor Vodolatsky, a senior legislator, said Moscow does not feel compelled to make an official reaction to the recent US action. "More Russian nuclear submarines are operating in the oceans of the world than American ones, and the subs on which US President Donald Trump instructed to be shifted to the correct areas have been in their possession for a very long time. Therefore no reaction from the Russian Federation to the words of the American leader concerning the submarines is needed," he stated.
Vodolatsky also added, "Let the two US subs sail, they have been in the crosshairs for a long time now," suggesting that Russian naval forces already have the American ships under close surveillance.
Trump previously declared through a post on his site, Truth Social, that he had directed US submarines to be moved to unspecified "appropriate areas." He pointed to "extremely provocative comments" issued by Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and current Security Council deputy chairman, as justification for the action.
Vodolatsky stressed as well the need for diplomatic efforts rather than military action. "A basic agreement that must be reached between Russia and America so that the entire world would calm down and stop talking about the start of World War III," he said.
Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor-in-chief of the Russia in Global Affairs magazine, called on observers to take less seriously Trump's words. In an interview with RBC TV, a Russian private news service, Lukyanov stated, "Trump, as we know, has his own channel and responds, so to say, emotionally, humanly and spontaneously. I believe that the United States armed forces, the naval forces read this with huge surprise.". If this war of words goes on and Trump keeps getting pulled into it, then one way or another, he will likely have to act. In my view, thus far this is merely at the level of words.
Markets seemed to respond nervously to Trump's words. The Moscow Exchange Index fell by 2,709.26 points, a 0.99% drop, by 8:01 PM local time in Moscow (10:31 PM IST) on Friday.
Discussing an unrelated but connected matter, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recent statement in an interview with Fox News. Rubio had stressed the need for not directly confronting Moscow, a view which Lavrov embraced.
Whilst Europeans hysterically are advocating Ukraine's integration into NATO and gearing up for possible war with Russia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has just reaffirmed a wise position, clearly saying that direct military conflict between America and Russia should be avoided at all costs. We fully agree with this position. Such mutual understanding has been achieved through sensible Russian-American discussions," Lavrov added.
