Russian President Vladimir Putin responded with one short sentence when asked at a press conference whether Moscow might strike military facilities in the UK in response to British arms supplies to Ukraine.
“That’s a secret. A military secret.”
Military secret is not a “yes”. And not a “no”. It leaves us hanging.
And that, I suspect, is the point.
Those two words feel like psychological pressure from the Kremlin: to keep Britain guessing – and stressing – over Moscow’s intentions, as well as to encourage the UK to think twice about its staunch support for Ukraine.
It reminds me of a newspaper article I read a few days ago. Moskovsky Komsomolets had suggested that UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham should be seeing Russia, not in his dreams, “but in his nightmares”.
Scary language. But short on detail about what those nightmares will look like.
We cannot conclude that Russian missiles are about to be used against targets in the UK.
But look what’s happening elsewhere in Europe.
Germany now says Russia was responsible for last month’s drone attack at Leipzig airport.
Putin accused Germany of “planting the evidence”. But German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described “the well-established pattern of Russian hybrid operations in Europe”.
Could such “operations” now be stepped up in the UK?
Yet it wasn’t just Britain that received veiled threats at Putin’s press conference.
So did the West in general. Putin referred to Western countries as sharks.
“If anyone tries to drag us down the food chain, to gobble us up or devour us, they might get punched in the teeth,” he said. “Russia is ready to do that, despite the rapidly growing appetites and teeth of these sharks.”
Increasingly Russia’s president is mixing the geopolitical with the zoological. He recently spoke about killer whales “tearing polar bears apart” to justify Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The press conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, was a fascinating window on Putin’s state of mind.
For forty-five minutes he took questions from Russian journalists and came across as combative, confident of victory and energised. These days Putin appears most animated when talking about the geopolitical standoff between Russia and the West and the war in Ukraine.
Even though the war has not gone to plan. Russia has suffered huge losses on the battlefield and the country’s economy is under considerable pressure.
“I have no doubt that the enemy will crumble,” he declared. Yet the war has lasted more than four-and-a-half years and Ukraine fights on.
Officially the Kremlin still calls this a “special military operation”. But even Putin now is using the word “war”.
“War is a brutal and unpredictable thing,” he said at the press conference.
He claimed that he remained open to negotiations to end the conflict and left no doubt with whom he’d prefer to sit down with from the US administration: Donald Trump’s envoys.
“We are absolutely comfortable working with those people we know well and generally trust,” Putin said. “[Jared] Kushner and [Steve] Witkoff are always welcome guests. It’s a pleasure working with them.”
There was no such name check for the CIA director who had made a surprise visit to Moscow last week. The Kremlin says the Russian president didn’t meet John Ratcliffe during that trip.
Is Putin likely to meet Witkoff and Kushner anytime soon?
There’s nothing in the diary. Not yet.
But if they do head to Moscow, President Trump’s envoys will encounter a Kremlin leader who remains determined that any peace in Ukraine should be on Russia’s terms.
