Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to a Truth Social post by U.S. President Donald Trump in an interview with Russia’s RBC today, by drily noting that “Russia is definitely not a tiger. After all, Russia is more often compared to a bear. There are no ‘paper bears’ and Russia is a real bear,” he said.
As we reported on Sept. 23, Trump had flippantly suggested that if Russia were a real military power, it would have defeated smaller Ukraine long ago, so maybe it is really just a “paper tiger,” and Ukraine could take all its territory back, and go for more.
To encourage Ukraine to keep fighting is “a mistake,” Peskov added. “Ukraine’s position is much worse now. I repeat, it will only continue to deteriorate. The fact that Ukraine is being encouraged in every way to continue hostilities, and the idea that Ukraine can win something back is, in our view, a mistake. The situation on the front lines speaks for itself.”
In the same interview, Peskov reiterated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal from Sept. 22 that Russia and the U.S. jointly adhere to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) for a year after its expiration in February 2026, to have time to negotiate its replacement. But Peskov underlined that Russia will do so only if the U.S. agreed to do the same.
