Russia dismisses Trump moving nuclear submarines closer as ‘temper tantrum’

Russia has dismissed Donald Trump’s moving of nuclear submarines as a ‘temper tantrum’.

Following comments from the former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the US president announced earlier this week that he has ordered two nuclear submarines to ‘be positioned in the appropriate regions’.

In line with US military protocol, Trump didn’t exactly say where they were being deployed.

He told reporters that he was going to ‘protect our people’ following there being a ‘threat made’. Medvedev had wrote on X that the president was playing the ‘ultimatum game with Russia’ with each new one being a ‘threat and a step towards war’.

These latest Russian comments and US move comes after months of the phrase ‘World War III’ being banded about and tensions seeming to rise between the nations.

The Kremlin has not yet commented on Trump's latest move. (Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Trump recently set a 10-day deadline for Moscow to agree to put an end to its war on Ukraine or face severe sanctions.

But Medvedev said ‘Russia didn’t care’ about the ultimatums as Trump warned him to ‘watch his words’.

And so, he took to Truth Social on Friday (1 August) to write: “Based on the highly provocative statements of the former president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions."

He then told reporters: “A threat was made, and we didn't think it was appropriate. So I have to be very careful.

"I do that on the basis of safety for our people. A threat was made by a former president of Russia. And we're going to protect our people."

But Russia have clapped back with local media seeming to mock Trump and his moving of nuclear submarines.

President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin is yet to respond but former major general Leonid Ivlev said it didn’t pose a new threat as the location of the US’ naval forces is apparently known.

Both the US and Russia have a fleet of nuclear submarines. (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

And while another retired lieutenant general slammed it all as ‘meaningless blather’ as that’s how Trump ‘gets his kicks’, a Russian security expert told one outlet: “I’m sure Trump didn’t really give any orders.”

A military commentator also told a paper that the US president was ‘throwing a temper tantrum’.

Following Trump’s statements on Friday, Moscow’s stock market fell sharply.

The US and Russia have the most nuclear arms in the world and both nations have their own fleet of nuclear submarines.

It wasn’t quite clear in Trump’s Truth Social post if he was referring to nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered subs.