Russia wants to produce 1,500 tanks for the war against Ukraine this year. “The military-industrial complex has overheated,” Deputy National Security Council chief Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published on Thursday. The majority of armaments companies work in a three-shift system. The West is trying to cut Russia off from important components and claiming that the country is running out of artillery shells, tanks and rockets. “We’re making 1,500 tanks this year alone,” said the ex-president.
As recently as February, Medvedev, who is also responsible for the armaments industry on the Security Council, spoke of the construction and modernization of thousands of tanks when he visited a factory. Experts doubt that his country can produce such quantities. Medvedev also said that Russia produces its own drones. So far, however, there has been a lack of large combat drones, for which there will soon be their own production.
Medvedev published the interview himself on his channel on the Telegram news service. In it he also said that a possible arrest of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Germany on the basis of the arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in The Hague would be tantamount to a “declaration of war” against Russia. In that case, Russia would fire rockets at the Bundestag and the Chancellery, the ex-president threatened.
An international arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine has been in place for Kremlin chief Putin since last week. Moscow does not recognize the court in The Hague.
Regarding the words of Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) that Germany must implement the decree and arrest the Russian head of state if he enters German territory, Medvedev said: “Is he even aware that this would be a casus belli, a declaration of war? Or has he neglected to do his homework?” In any case, the ICC decision is negative for relations with the West, which are already worse than at the beginning of the Cold War.
Medvedev also emphasized that Russia has western weapons that are equal to or better than those in arms. “The most important thing now is to produce everything in the necessary quantities, and new productions still have to be started for this.” Above all, however, Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons ensured protection. “If it weren’t for that, they would have torn us to pieces by now.”
