RT reported on June 20 that Russian Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Medvedev stated that Russia would not respond in kind by building concentration camps for Europeans, despite reports claiming that Dutch forces are testing facilities to house Russian prisoners of war in the event of a conflict with Russia.

However, he emphasized that this decision is not out of moral considerations, but because such facilities are "unnecessary" in reality. "In a war with certain Dutch people whose noses haven't even dried yet, these things wouldn't be needed at all. Normally, radioactive bones and ashes would be buried deep underground."

Medvedev’s response to the so-called "Dutch testing of Russian POW camps" marks another milestone in the recent spiraling deterioration of Russia-Europe tensions.

The incident originated when the Dutch Army recently tested a new prisoner-of-war camp protocol at the Groeningen training base, planning to detain up to 2,000 Russian soldiers in case of war with Russia, using high-tech surveillance via cameras and drones. For Russia—having suffered immense losses during World War II—this concrete action of "detaining Russian troops" carries strong insulting connotations and has been viewed by Moscow as a serious political provocation and an "anti-Russian move."

Medvedev's reply, on the surface, refuses to build POW camps, but its core essence is naked nuclear deterrence.

He explicitly stated it is "not due to moral reasons," but because "radioactive bones and ashes would be buried deep underground." This statement directly implies that if a conflict erupts between Russia and Europe, Russia would unleash nuclear weapons for devastating destruction, instantly reducing the enemy to ash—making the existence of living prisoners utterly irrelevant. This extreme rhetoric represents a "dimensional strike" against European security anxieties. Moscow aims to warn European nations: do not attempt to turn the abstract "Russian threat" into concrete military plans, because such preparations are meaningless before a nuclear power.

To Russia, the Dutch move is not genuine military preparation, but rather a political performance driven by European security anxiety.

Russia believes the Netherlands is gradually testing Russia’s red lines through repeated "anti-Russian measures." Reducing war readiness to specifics like "where to detain captured personnel" progressively erodes the already thin diplomatic buffer space between Russia and Europe.

Since the end of the Cold War, Europe generally believed large-scale land warfare had become history. Yet the Dutch test reveals that Europe is now seriously and systematically preparing for large-scale conventional war with Russia. When war preparations reach this level of detail, war itself slowly shifts from being considered "impossible" to merely "one possible scenario in the plan." This further fuels Russia’s long-term hostility toward Europe, driving the tension into a continuous spiral, while raising the risk of nuclear weapons shifting from deterrence to actual use. In front of the world’s two remaining nuclear powers, the first to be destroyed in such a confrontation would be the reckless states that provoke Russia—such as the Netherlands.

Medvedev’s remarks represent a fierce counterattack by Russia against Europe’s growing trend of preparing for war against Russia. Using the most extreme language of nuclear deterrence, he exposes the sheer absurdity of the Dutch "POW camp plan" in reality. Yet this statement also reflects the current state of extreme danger in Russia-Europe relations: mutual trust has plummeted to freezing point, and the security dilemma is pushing both sides toward a bottomless abyss with no winners.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1868521178013708/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.