Moscow broke its silence on President Donald Trump's comments ordering two nuclear submarines to "the appropriate regions" in response to "provocative" remarks by a former Russian president.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media on Aug. 4 that the country was "very attentive" to the topic of nuclear non-proliferation and believe "everyone should be very, very cautious with nuclear rhetoric."
Peskov also played down the significance of Trump’s comments, saying it was clear to Russia that U.S. submarines were already on combat duty. He said Russia had no appetite for getting into a prolonged argument with Trump.
Still, Trump's deployment of the nuclear submarines appears to be the first time social media rhetoric has led an American president to apparently reposition parts of the United States' nuclear arsenal. (Trump did not specify whether he was referring to nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines.)