Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday said it was now absolutely clear that the United States was Russia’s adversary and that US President Donald Trump’s recent steps on Ukraine amounted to an act of war against Russia.
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Trump said during the US election campaign that he would swiftly end the Ukraine war, which his administration has cast as a “proxy war” between Washington and Moscow, though he has recently expressed frustration about President Vladimir Putin.
Trump, who has described Russia as a “paper tiger”, said on Wednesday he had cancelled a planned summit with Putin, and the US Treasury slapped sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.
“The United States is our adversary, and their talkative ‘peacemaker’ has now fully embarked on the warpath with Russia,” Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram, referring to Trump.
“The decisions taken are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has fully aligned himself with loony Europe.”
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Putin, paramount leader since the last day of 1999, remains the final voice on Russian policy though Medvedev, an arch-hawk who has repeatedly goaded Trump on social media, gives a sense of hardline thinking within the elite.