Dmitri Medvedev: A Number of Countries Ready to Gift Iran Nukes

Dmitri Medvedev, former President of Russia and current Deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation dropped a bombshell. 

Without specifying who, he asserts that “a number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.”

2. The enrichment of nuclear material — and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons — will continue.
3. A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) June 22, 2025

One presumes that of the countries with nuclear weapons, North Korea would be the obvious one willing to provide Iran with a nuke. However, that is not a “number of countries,” and the only other two that could conceivably do so are Russia and China. Currently, only the US, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea have nukes. Which of these countries would part with their nukes is an odd question. 

JD Vance on Dmitry Medvedev’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program will continue and that other nuclear states are ready to provide Iran with nukes:

“It’s a bizarre response, but I also don’t know that that guy speaks for President Putin or the the Russian government” pic.twitter.com/oHzND3qs5B

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 22, 2025

It’s hard to know how serious Medvedev is, or how influential he would be in deciding something of this magnitude. China seems like it would be far too cautious to do so, and it would be a wild decision for Russia to make. 

Also of interest in this statement is Medvedev’s admission that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapon already, despite claims to the contrary. “We can now say it outright” is a confirmation of what we all knew already. Iran intended to build nukes. 

You can see why, even if you take away any intent to strike Israel first in order to destroy it. Clearly, Iran has no real capacity to deter Israel–the current war is proof of that–so the only viable option it has to ensure that Israel cannot destroy it is to have a second-strike capability to wipe Tel Aviv off the map. That’s why I have always discounted the argument that Iran didn’t want the bomb. It was doing everything necessary to get one, and it has an implacable enemy with the capacity to strike at will. 

Of course, they wanted nukes. 

So we are supposed to believe that Russia might supply Iran with “nuclear warheads” when it wouldn’t even sell Iran S-400 missile defense systems or Su-35s fighters?

Apparently the Russia-Iran “strategic partnership” is its own genre of fan fiction. Good stuff from Medvedev. https://t.co/8fgDEptlfM

— Esfandyar Batmanghelidj (@yarbatman) June 22, 2025

Is Medvedev blowing smoke? Russia has a history of making empty nuclear threats. Putin brings up using nukes in Ukraine as often as teenage boys talk about wanting to have carnal relations with girls. It’s hard to imagine any normal country, however hostile to the United States and its allies, putting into the hands of a regime like Iran the means to start the third world war.  

🚨Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev:
” The US is pushing toward a new world conflict. Trump has started a new war for the United States. We have approved a 20-year strategic pact with Iran and BRICS countries are ready to supply Tehran with nukes” pic.twitter.com/HlkrhTBGnt

— Alice 🇷🇺 🇵🇸 (@alice_zez) June 22, 2025

Only Russia and China have the deterrent capacity to anger the United States to this extent. Handing over nuclear weapons to Iran would be enormously destabilizing and would likely lead to the US reengaging in the Ukraine War and amping up the pressure on Russia even more. 

Trump is expected to speak with Putin soon. I doubt that Vladimir will be talking about handing nukes to Iran.