The World Is Getting More Dangerous, But Russia Does Not Want Global Conflict

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in a statement on Monday, Russia does not want a global conflict even though the world is getting more dangerous.

Medvedev praised US President Donald Trump's efforts to end Russia with Ukraine. However, he said he had repeatedly ignored Russia's interests, after previously repeatedly lashing out at Kyiv and Western powers while warning of the risk of an escalation of the war towards a nuclear "apocalypse".

"The situation is very dangerous," Medvedev told Reuters, TASS and Russian war blogger WarGonzo in an interview at his residence outside Moscow, as quoted (2/2).

"The threshold of pain seems to be decreasing," he continued.

"We are not interested in global conflicts. We are not crazy," Medvedev, who served as Russian president from 2008 to 2012, emphasized.

"Global conflicts cannot be ruled out," he said.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered the biggest confrontation between the West and Moscow since the Cold War.

Later, President Trump's envoys are trying to negotiate an end to the war with Russia and Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin remains the final word on Russian policy, although Medvedev, now a hardliner, gives the impression of hardline thinking within the Russian elite, according to foreign diplomats.

Presidents Putin and Trump both mentioned the risk of escalation over Ukraine, although European diplomats said Moscow had skillfully played the escalation card to scare Ukraine's allies from getting too involved in the war.

"They said 'It's impossible - these Russians are making it all up - they are spreading terrible stories and they would never do anything'," Medvedev said, adding what the Kremlin called a "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine showed that Russia would defend its interests.

Ukraine and its European allies see the war, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two, as an imperialist land grab, saying that if Russia wins in Ukraine they will one day attack NATO. Russia rejects the claims as nonsense.

The conflict first erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was ousted in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution. Russia annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists fought against Kyiv's armed forces in eastern Ukraine.