Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has accused the US of promoting 'disgusting' anti-Russian sentiment, and claims his country has the power to put its enemies 'in their place.'
Medvedev, who briefly took over from Vladimir Putin as the country's president between 2008 and 2012 and served as Russian Prime Minister from 2012 to 2020, issued the thinly-veiled warning just days after he himself was included on a new list of oligarchs and political figures targeted by sanctions in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine.
Now serving as the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, Medvedev singled out the United States in particular for encouraging what he described as Russophobia, and accused the rival superpower of trying to force Russia to its knees.
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'It will not work,' he said, per Reuters, adding that 'Russia has the might to put all of our brash enemies in their place'.
Over the past three weeks, Russia has found itself increasingly isolated diplomatically and largely cut-off from the global economy after the US, UK, EU and other countries implemented some of the most severe economic sanctions ever placed on a single nation in response to Putin's decision to invade Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly claimed that these sanctions have had limited impact on the country, despite analysis suggesting that it is set to default on its foreign debt, with the value of the rouble plummeting and the Moscow Stock Exchange set to remain closed for a month in a effort to avoid a seemingly inevitable market crash.
Several leading political figures and businessmen, including Putin himself, have seen their foreign assets frozen, with a number of oligarchs having had homes and boats seized by police forces across Europe.
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In response, Russia earlier this week announced it was placing its own sanctions on 13 high-profile Americans, including President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Hillary Clinton. The retaliatory list is expected to have little impact as none of those mentioned are thought to have any assets or interests in Russia.
Medvedev's claims of Russian 'might' also come amid growing western intelligence assessments suggesting that the country's military is reassessing its objectives in Ukraine after meeting a fierce resistance and struggling with logistical issues, which have seen it so far fail to take a single major city in three weeks of warfare.
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Topics: Russia, Ukraine, World News