Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, took to social media on Friday to dismiss the Coalition of the Willing gathered in Paris the previous day, Sept. 4, to plan security guarantees for Ukraine.
“What they’re doing is utter nonsense. It’s heresy,” Medvedev said, adding: “In plain English it’s ‘bullsh*t’ or simply ‘sh*t.’ They get together and discuss what sort of guarantee to offer Ukraine. But really they’re just making things up, pulling ideas out of various orifices and then presenting them as guarantees. It will lead nowhere.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that any Western forces deployed to Ukraine would be “legitimate” targets for Russia’s army, as Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky said “thousands” could be sent as part of a peacekeeping force, following a ceasefire.
On Thursday Medvedev said that Russia could retaliate against the UK for its use of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s war effort, by seizing British assets in Russia and Ukraine.
Medvedev also lambasted UK Foreign Minister David Lammy, calling him “the English idiot.”
Despite the crassness of Medvedev’s outbursts – frequently attributed to bouts of dipsomania – many believe there might be a method to Medvedev’s madness:
The former president and prime minister of the Russian Federation was seen in his former incarnation as a liberal, Western-leaning politician whom the world could do business with.
As Russian tanks rolled over Ukraine’s borders, however, Medvedev was considered a spent political force, his appointment to the security council seen as little more than a sinecure, and his popularity with the electorate at an all-time low according to a Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) poll at the end of 2021.
His social media ejaculations are full of threats against NATO, the US and the West as a whole, often suggesting Russia will/could/should resort to the use of nuclear weapons.
With the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, however, he metamorphosed into the most radical of Kremlin mouthpieces.
Within three weeks he opened his Telegram channel and his debut post, made three days later, offered the first of his many harangues against the West.
His social media ejaculations, made roughly twice a week or when something newsworthy catches his eye, are full of threats against NATO, the US and the West as a whole, often suggesting Russia will/could/should resort to the use of nuclear weapons along with insults to Western leaders, officials and citizens.
Medvedev’s channel very quickly became one of Russia’s most popular. Two months after launch he became the second most popular Russian blogger after Chechen hardman Ramzan Kadyrov, whom he overtook by the end of the year. He now has more than 1.6 million subscribers.
His often splenetic, twice-weekly attacks on Ukraine, the West or anything else that attracts his ire, accompanied by regular brandishing of the nuclear option, have become a watchword for ridicule amid accusations that his blogs are fired by excessive drinking.
Some of his followers may be attracted by the entertainment value of his rants – for instance, when he refers to Western politicians as “a pack of grunting pigs” – but many share his view of the world, which is reflected in the growth of his popularity in opinion polls over the last three and a half years.