He was a little coy about specifying the decision-making centers.

After the speech, however, Mr. Putin hosted a background briefing with news media editors, in which, according to Russian reports, the president said that if the United States moved missiles into Poland, Russia would deploy submarines off American shores.

Mr. Kiselyev, already famous for saying some years ago that Russia could reduce the United States to “nuclear dust,” ran with that threat.

Some Putin supporters applauded the sentiment. On a talk show immediately following the news program, one commentator said there was no need to rely on weapons like tanks since the response would be nuclear.

Critics, however, were scathing, suggesting that Russia was saber rattling from a position of weakness. Just moments before, the same news program reported that some 200,000 Russian children attend schools with only outhouses for toilets, one commentator noted on Twitter, asking what exactly was worth defending with nuclear-tipped missiles.

Another commentator wondered how Russians would react if CNN broadcast a program detailing American plans to strike Moscow and St. Petersburg with nuclear weapons.

In the ensuing outcry, Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, echoed his boss’s coyness by noting that the president himself had not singled out any target by name.

Over all, several factors motivated the belligerent rhetoric, analysts said, in addition to the United States’ withdrawal from the I.N.F. Treaty.