Russia’s ex-president Medvedev quotes a threatening message from Stalin in 1941 to demand more arms production by the Russian defense industry.
China has not yet sent weapons to Russia to replenish stockpiles depleted by Moscow’s war in Ukraine, US President Joe Biden said.
“I’ve heard for the last three months now that China will supply significant arms to Russia… They haven’t done it yet. That doesn’t mean they won’t, but they haven’t done it yet,” Biden said at a news conference during a visit to Canada on Friday.
“I don’t take China lightly. I don’t take Russia lightly,” he said, also noting that reports of rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing were likely “exaggerated.”
During a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow this week, Russian and Chinese leaders praised “the special nature” of their relationship, but Beijing made no commitment to supporting Russia’s exhausted forces in Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also dismissed the deepening of China-Russia ties earlier this week as a “marriage of convenience”.
Blinken said Russia is “very much the junior partner” in the relationship, noting that China has so far refused to supply Moscow with weapons for its war in Ukraine.
“As we speak today, we did not see them crossing that line,” Blinken said of China.
Russian arms manufacturing took center stage on Thursday as former President Dmitry Medvedev loudly read out a threatening telegram from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1941 to leaders of Russia’s defense industry – apparently to boost domestic arms production.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister, on Friday shared a video of Medvedev reading out Stalin’s WWII-era telegram during a meeting with subordinates and Russia’s National Armaments Commission.
“If in a few days it turns out that you are violating your duty to your fatherland, I will start crushing you as criminals who disregarded the honor and interests of your fatherland,” Medvedev read from a printed copy of Stalin’s 1941 letter at a factory demanding faster production of tank parts.
“It is unacceptable that our troops should be starved of tanks at the front while you laze and loaf about in the far rear,” he read.
Dmitry Medvedev read Stalin’s old telegram to his subordinates. A hint to repeat Stalin’s methods? pic.twitter.com/Zt0ybPkT2B
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) March 24, 2023
Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, then addressed the group of defense industry leaders and said: “Colleagues, I would like you to listen to me and remember the words of the generalissimo”.
Medvedev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is a particularly fervent and enthusiastic supporter of Moscow’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Several Russian media outlets reported on his decision to quote Stalin and release a video addressing officials. Medvedev also published excerpts from an interview with Russian journalists in which he claims that Russia is actually at war with all of NATO.
Yevgeny Prigozhin – the founder of the Wagner mercenary force fighting for Russia against Ukraine – has engaged in weeks of bitter and public feuding with Russia’s top army leaders over the lack of ammunition in his forces fighting the battle for the Ukrainian city Bachmut.
The Wagner boss accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of knowingly refusing ammunition to its fighters in what he called a treacherous attempt to destroy the mercenary group.