What is the Dead Hand, about which Medvedev wrote to Trump

Former US President, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev threatened US President Donald Trump with a “dead hand” – that is, a nuclear strike.

This is reported by Clicker.

Dmitry Medvedev wrote about the “dead hand” on the morning of July 31, 2025, responding to Donald Trump’s post in Truth Social.

Dead Hand is the Soviet “Perimeter” system, a complex for automatic control of a massive nuclear strike.

The complex was created in the USSR at the height of the Cold War in the 1970s.

At the same time, the Emergency Rocket Communications System complex was created in the USA.

Is the Dead Hand complex currently operating

It is alleged that the command post of the Dead Hand complex is located in a bunker in Mount Kosvinsky Kamen (Sverdlovsk Region, Russia).

According to Wired magazine in 2009, the Perimeter system was operational and ready to deliver a nuclear strike.

In December 2011, the commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Karakayev, stated that the Perimeter system existed and was on combat duty.

In 2018, the former chief of staff of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, Viktor Yesin, stated that the Perimeter system would be ineffective in the event of a possible US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

According to him, the US could deploy its missiles in Europe and destroy the bulk of the Russian missile assets before Dead Hand could react. When the system finally works, Russia will have few means to respond adequately. “We will be able to launch only those missiles that survive the aggressor’s first strike,” said Colonel General Viktor Yesin, noting that the remaining missiles could be intercepted by American missile defense.