Russia's former president Dmitry Medvedev marked Russian Unity Day on Friday with a blistering Telegram post in which he excoriated the West, Ukraine, and some of Russia's erstwhile allies for a litany of percieved transgressions and betrayals.
In a post entitled "Why our cause is just," Medvedev used the occasion of Russian Unity Day – a holiday introduced by President Vladimir Putin in 2005 to celebrate Russia's 1612 victory over invading Polish forces – to condemn Russia's enemies, chiefly in Ukraine, whom he said belonged to "a dying world."
"They are a bunch of insane Nazi drug addicts, a nation drugged and intimidated by them, and a large pack of barking dogs from the Western kennel," Medvedev wrote.
Stressing that Russia's immense size and wealth meant that it didn't need any new territory, the former president nevertheless stressed the existence of land "which is sacred for us, where our ancestors lived and where our people live today. And we will not cede it to anyone."
"We are fighting for all our people, for our land, for our thousand-year history," Medvedev continued.
Suggesting Russia had a messianic role in liberating the Earth from the West, Medvedev wrote "our awakening was awaited by other countries, raped by the masters of darkness, the slave masters and oppressors, who dream of their monstrous colonial past and yearn to maintain their power over the world."
"We were abandoned by some frightened partners, who cares about them," Medvedev said, adding: "Cowardly traitors and greedy defectors fled to faraway lands – let their bones rot in a foreign place."
Tens of thousands of Russians rushed to leave the country after Putin launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24. A second wave left after Putin announced the mobilization of 300,000 reservists on Sept. 21.
Since the invasion began, the 57-year-old Medvedev has often taken to social media to write increasingly anti-Western posts and has made a name for himself as one of the most vocal cheerleaders of the war.
AFP contributed reporting.
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