MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that it is now absolutely clear that the United States is an adversary of Russia and that U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent moves towards Ukraine amount to an act of war against Russia.
During the US election campaign, Trump said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, but he recently expressed his frustration with President Vladimir Putin.
Trump, who has described Russia as a “paper tiger,” said on Wednesday he had canceled a planned summit with Putin, and the US Treasury imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oil companies.
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“The United States is our adversary, and its loud-mouthed ‘peacemaker’ has now fully embarked on the path of war with Russia,” Medvedev, who serves as vice chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram, referring to Trump.
“The decisions made are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has completely aligned himself with crazy Europe.”
Putin, supreme leader since the last day of 1999, remains the final voice on Russian politics, although Medvedev, a hard-liner who has repeatedly taunted Trump on social media, gives a glimpse into hard-line thinking within the elite.
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In August, Trump said he had ordered two US nuclear submarines to approach Russia in response to what he called Medvedev’s “highly provocative” comments about the risk of war.
Medvedev said the swing of the “Trumpian pendulum” simply meant that Russia could now attack Ukraine with a wide range of weapons “without taking into account unnecessary negotiations.”
Putin, who ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in the east of the country between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces, has repeatedly said he is ready to talk about peace.
European leaders and Ukraine say they do not believe Putin wants peace and have warned that Russia could one day attack a NATO member, an allegation the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed as absurd.
