Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today described Joe Biden as ‘mad and mentally disabled’ in a venomous tirade directed at the US President following his State of the Union address yesterday.
Biden opened his address with a reference to a 1941 speech to Congress by 32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who declared the union faced an unprecedented turning point in history.
Biden also accused Republican rival Donald Trump of kowtowing to Russia and, just over two weeks after calling Vladimir Putin a ‘crazy SOB’, said he had a message for the Russian President on Ukraine: ‘We will not walk away.’
His remarks enraged the increasingly combative Medvedev, who accused Biden of trying to start World War Three and chastised him for comparing himself to Roosevelt.
‘Even though Roosevelt was an infirm man in a wheelchair, he raised America from the Depression; Biden, on the other hand, is a mad, mentally disabled individual who set his mind on dragging humanity to hell,’ the Putin ally, who is now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on X.
‘Roosevelt together with allies including the USSR, was fighting for peace; yet, Biden is actively and persistently trying to start WWIII.
‘Roosevelt was fighting against fascists, but Biden is fighting for them. He is the United States’ disgrace!’ Medvedev concluded.
Deputy head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden on Defender of the Fatherland Day, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, on March 7, 2024, in Washington
Medvedev accused Biden of trying to start World War Three and chastised him for comparing himself to Roosevelt
US President Joe Biden delivers the annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the Capital building on March 7, 2024 in Washington, DC
In his State of the Union address, Biden accused Republican rival Donald Trump of kowtowing to Russia and, just over two weeks after calling Vladimir Putin a ‘crazy SOB’, said he had a message for the Russian President on Ukraine: ‘We will not walk away’
FILE: Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (R) in Mosocw, May 9, 2019
Medvedev, who cast himself as a liberal moderniser when he was president from 2008-2012, now presents himself as an anti-Western Kremlin hawk.
Diplomats say his views give an indication of thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite.
The war in Ukraine has triggered a deep crisis in Russia’s relations with the West, and Biden angered Russian officials with his ‘crazy SOB’ comment.
Biden made that remark in a sentence about threats to the world including ‘that guy Putin and others,’ the risk of nuclear conflict and the existential threat to humanity from climate change.
But Putin, with an ironic smile, said the remark showed why the Kremlin felt Biden was a preferable future president to Trump.
Medvedev also made headlines just days ago when he claimed the relationship between the US and Russia is worse than during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 as the Kremlin accused the West of ‘direct involvement’ in the war in Ukraine.
The former Russian president made the comments in a public speech, adding that the Kremlin has ruled out peace talks with Ukraine as its invasion of the nation entered its third year.
Medvedev was speaking in front of a map of Ukraine which showed the country as a much smaller landlocked rump of territory squeezed up against Poland with Russia in complete control of its east, south and Black Sea coastline.
‘One of Ukraine’s former leaders said at some point that Ukraine is not Russia,’ said Medvedev.
‘That concept needs to disappear forever. Ukraine is definitely Russia,’ he said to applause from the audience.
FILE: Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev holds an Orsis, Russian-made weapon during a visit to Promtechnologiya firearms company in Moscow, on November 19, 2013
FILE: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) and President Dmitry Medvedev address members of United Russia Party in the headquarters of United Russia Party during a nationwide parliamentary election on December, 4, 2011 in Moscow, Russia
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson speaks during a press conference at the government headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden
Sweden’s accession to NATO constitutes a significant blow for the Russian President, who has sought to prevent any further strengthening of the alliance and threatened to take unspecified ‘political and military-technical counter-measures’ in response
Biden’s State of the Union address that riled Medvedev came just after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken approved final documents ratifying Sweden’s accession to NATO.
The move constituted a stunning break with a two-century-long policy of military neutrality in Sweden, which has not been involved in an armed conflict since the early 19th century.
Prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Scandinavian nation and its Nordic partner Finland conducted a comprehensive review of its longstanding national security policy and just two months later applied to join the mammoth bloc.
Twenty-two months later, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson yesterday handed over the final documentation at a ceremony presided over Blinken, after which Stockholm’s ‘instrument of accession’ to the alliance was officially deposited at the State Department.
‘This is a historic moment for Sweden. It’s historic for the alliance. It’s history for the transatlantic relationship,’ Blinken said, with Kristersson adding that Sweden is now ‘a safer country’.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also described it as ‘a historic day’ that will see Sweden ‘take its rightful place at NATO’s table, with an equal say in shaping NATO policies and decisions.’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared: ‘One more country in Europe has become more protected from Russian evil.
‘Now, at a time of Russian aggression against everything that has made Europe peaceful and united, everyone sees how important it is to maintain alliances and partnerships, to strengthen our own security and to take care of the security of neighbours,’ he added in his evening address.
Putin meanwhile has remained silent on the matter, but the addition of Sweden to the security alliance will come as a blow to the Russian President who has sought to prevent any further strengthening of NATO – and cast his invasion of Ukraine as a response to safeguard Russia’s future against the West.
