Russia's Medvedev praises Trump but questions US submarine threat

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, praised U.S. President Donald Trump as an effective leader who was seeking peace but added that Moscow had seen no trace of nuclear submarines Trump said he moved to Russian shores.

Trump, who has said he wants to be remembered as a "peacemaker" president, has repeatedly said that a peace deal to end the Ukraine war is close, and a new round of U.S.-Russian-Ukrainian talks is scheduled for this week in Abu Dhabi.

Asked if Trump was positive or negative for Russia and about unproven speculation that Trump was some sort of Russian agent, Medvedev said the American people had chosen Trump and that Moscow respected that decision.

Medvedev lauded Trump's courage in resisting the U.S. establishment and said the U.S. president's sometimes "brash" style was "effective".

"He is an emotional person, but on the other hand, the chaos that is commonly referred to, which is created by his activities, is not entirely true," he told Reuters, TASS and the WarGonzo Russian war blogger in an interview at his residence outside Moscow and authorised for publication on Sunday.

"It is obvious that behind this lies a completely conscious and competent line," said Medvedev, who served as Russian president from 2008 to 2012.

President Vladimir Putin remains the final voice on Russian policy, though Medvedev, an arch-hawk who has repeatedly goaded Trump on social media, gives a sense of hardliners' thinking within the Russian elite, according to foreign diplomats.

"Trump wants to go down in history as a peacemaker - and he is really trying," Medvedev said. "He is really trying to do that. And that is why contacts with Americans have become much more productive."

TRUMP'S SUBMARINE THREAT

Medvedev said the key to understanding Trump was his business background, quipping that there was no such thing as a former businessman - a play on an old Russian joke that there is no such thing as a former KGB agent.

Trump in August said he had ordered two U.S. nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia in response to what he called "highly provocative" comments from Medvedev about the risk of war after what appeared to be an ultimatum from Trump.

"We still have not found them," Medvedev said of the U.S. submarines.

After Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev has repeatedly hurled invective at Kyiv and Western powers while warning of the risks of an escalation of the war towards a nuclear "apocalypse".

Medvedev said Russia would "soon" win military victory in the Ukraine war but the key thing was to prevent any further conflict, adding: "I would like this to happen as soon as possible."

"But it is equally important to think about what will happen next. After all, the goal of victory is to prevent new conflicts. This is absolutely obvious."

Russia currently controls a fifth of Ukraine but has so far been unable to take the whole of the eastern Donbas region, where Ukrainian forces hold about 10%, or 5,000 square km (1,900 square miles), according to open-source maps of the war.

-Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Vladimir Soldatkin and Gareth Jones/Reuters