Putin threatens "military measures" against Trump's missile shield project

MoscowCoercion and supply in the same statement. Vladimir Putin warns that Russia is willing to resort to force if it feels threatened by the arms buildup of other countries. The Russian president is referring to the future space-based missile shield that Donald Trump wants to create to protect the United States, the so-called Golden Dome. "No one should doubt it: Russia is capable of responding to any existing or emerging threat, not with words, but through the use of military-technical measures," he said at a meeting of the Russian Security Council.

The Kremlin already took a step in this direction in early August when it lifted the moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles, a move Putin has described as "necessary" to "respond adequately to direct US and Western threats to Russian security."

The Kremlin leader believes that if Trump pushes ahead with his "destabilizing" project, which would shoot down enemy missiles from space, it could "undermine Russian efforts to maintain thestatus quo Regarding strategic offensive weapons," that is, long-range nuclear weapons. According to Putin, international strategic stability "continues to deteriorate" and new risks are emerging.

The offer to Trump

Having made the threat, however, he has come forward with an offer: a one-year extension of the New START Treaty, the agreement to limit the nuclear weapons available to Russia and the United States. This treaty, which has been renewed every five years since the two countries signed it in 2010, expires on February 5, 2026, and Putin would find it "wrong and short-sighted" to abandon "the last international agreement on direct restrictions on nuclear missile power."

Of course, the offer will only be maintained if Trump agrees to comply with the same conditions and "does not take measures that violate the existing balance of deterrence potential." "Russia is confident in the reliability and effectiveness of its nuclear deterrent forces," Putin was keen to make clear.

New START provides for each state to have a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads, meaning they could be mounted on missiles, submarines, or bombers. At the height of the Cold War in the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union deployed between 10,000 and 12,000. The treaty guarantees that both sides will monitor each other's nuclear arsenal, but this has not been the case since the start of the war in Ukraine. Putin even ordered the suspension of compliance with the agreement in 2023, but he trusts that Trump's arrival, despite the feared missile shield, will open the door to a new understanding.

Where the Kremlin sees understanding most difficult is with the European nuclear powers, France and the United Kingdom, which it blames for the deterioration of the consensus on halting the arms race. "Constructive relations and cooperation among nuclear-weapon states have been significantly undermined by the destructive actions of the West, which seeks to destroy global parity and attempt to achieve absolute and overwhelming superiority," the Russian president said.

In March, when Emmanuel Macron proposed extending the French nuclear umbrella to the entire European Union., the Kremlin leader responded: "Some people want to return to the times of Napoleon, but they forget how it ended." Moreover, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov compared him to Hitler and called his words a "threat."

Putin's Contradictions

"Russia is not interested in further escalating tensions and fueling an arms race," Putin asserts. And yet, his actions have not always been consistent with this assertion. Just last week, during joint military exercises between Russia and Belarus, the Russian army simulated the deployment of the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile, the crown jewel of Russian armament, which was actually fired in Ukraine in November 2020. At the same time, coinciding with Joe Biden's authorization for Volodymyr Zelensky to launch US long-range missiles, Putin also approved changes to Russian nuclear doctrine, the circumstances under which the Kremlin can use atomic weapons.

This deterrent move was born as a dead letter because it establishes as one of the cases for responding to an invasion by a country without nuclear weapons, but one that enjoys the support of nuclear powers. This is exactly what happened in August 2024, when Ukraine entered Russia's Kursk region.