Dmitry Medvedev has said that any attempt to arrest Vladimir Putin would amount to a declaration of war against Moscow.
The former Russian president and prime minister also warned that the threat of a “nuclear apocalypse” has not passed.
He has, in the past, often talked about the use of nuclear weapons in the context of last year’s Ukraine invasion, and has emerged as one of Mr Putin’s most hawkish and outspoken deputies.
His new comments come just days after he speculated that a hypersonic missile could be fired at the International Criminal Court (ICC) headquarters at The Hague after the tribunal issued an arrest warrant for Mr Putin.
“Has the threat of a nuclear conflict passed? No, it has not passed. It has increased. Each day when foreign weapons are delivered to Ukraine ultimately brings this same nuclear apocalypse closer…,” the deputy chairman of the Russian security council said in a video in his Telegram channel on Thursday.
“I have the feeling that until a certain point in time, they did not believe in and did not see the extent of Russia’s determination, or the determination of its president or the supreme commander, to do what we did. And they miscalculated,” said Mr Putin’s close ally.
Mr Medvedev said any attempt to detain the Russian president would be a declaration of war.
“Let’s imagine – obviously this situation will never be realised – but nevertheless let’s imagine that it was realised: The current head of the nuclear state went to a territory, say Germany, and was arrested,” Mr Medvedev said.
“What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation. And in that case, all our assets – all our missiles et cetera – would fly to the Bundestag, to the Chancellor’s office.”
Germany’s justice minister had said that his country would arrest Mr Putin if he entered German territory.
“I expect the ICC to quickly approach Interpol and the contracting states and ask them for enforcement,” German minister Marco Buschmann had said on Saturday, shortly after ICC’s arrest warrant.
Mr Medvedev said after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, the West “had considered itself the boss of Russia but Putin had put an end to that”.
“They were very offended,” he said, adding that the West disliked the independence of Russia and China.
The remarks come after the ICC issued an arrest warrant last week, accusing Mr Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine and citing reasonable grounds behind the Russian president’s individual criminal responsibility.
Mr Medvedev dubbed the ICC a “legal nonentity” that had never done anything significant. All three major nuclear superpowers – Russia, China and the US – do not count themselves among the member states that make up the ICC.
As per its latest arrest warrant, the court’s 123 member states must detain Mr Putin and hand him over for trial if he sets foot on their territory.
The ruling has made Mr Putin the third serving leader in history to be issued a warrant after Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
On Monday, Mr Medvedev speculated about bombing the war crimes court.
“It’s quite possible to imagine a hypersonic missile being fired from the North Sea from a Russian ship at The Hague courthouse,” he had said.
“Everyone walks under God and rockets… Look carefully to the sky…”
In February, he had issued a warning over how the continued supply of arms to Kyiv invited the risk of a global nuclear catastrophe.
“Of course, the pumping in of weapons can continue... and prevent any possibility of reviving negotiations,” he had said.
“Our enemies are doing just that, not wanting to understand that their goals will certainly lead to a total fiasco. Loss for everyone. A collapse. Apocalypse. Where you forget for centuries about your former life, until the rubble ceases to emit radiation.”
