"The president of the state must be prepared that his hand will not tremble..."

The former president of Russia, who is now the deputy chairman of the Security Council, also said at the "Knowledge" marathon that "if you have a weapon in your hands, and I, as a former president, know what it is, you must be prepared that your hand will not tremble in a certain situation to use it, no matter how monstrous and cruel it sounds".
Therefore, Russia's potential adversaries should not underestimate the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons, he added.
"You said that Russia will never be the first to use nuclear weapons. You know, that's not entirely true," Medvedev said.
He referred to the basics of the Russian state policy in the field of nuclear containment, recalling that it was said there that "nuclear weapons can be used in case of aggression against Russia with the use of other types of weapons that threaten the very existence of the state. This is, in essence, the use of nuclear weapons in response to such actions".
"Therefore, all these stories that 'the Russians will never do it', or vice versa, 'the Russians keep scaring us with the use of nuclear weapons,' are not worth a penny," he said.
According to him, nuclear weapons in the modern world are the link that unites the state and keeps it together.
"For the existence of Russia as the largest country on the planet, nuclear weapons are of timeless importance... We understand that in the modern world, nuclear weapons are important as a bond that unites the country," Medvedev explained.