LONDON: Britain accused Moscow Wednesday of “desperate rhetoric” after Russia’s ex-president threatened The Times newspaper over its coverage of the assassination of the head of the Russian army’s chemical weapons division.
Former president Dmitry Medvedev, the current deputy security council chair, appeared to suggest in a social media post Wednesday that senior staff at The Times were “legitimate military targets” and should “be careful”.
It came hours after an editorial ran in the London paper describing the assassination of Igor Kirillov, a Russian army general, as “a legitimate act of defence” by Ukraine.
A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service has told AFP it was behind Tuesday’s killing, in what it called a “special operation” targeting a “war criminal”.
“The people who committed the crimes against Russia... always have accomplices,“ Medvedev posted on Telegram.
“And they, too, are now legitimate military targets. These may include the lousy jackals from The Times, who cowardly hid behind an editorial. Meaning, the publication’s entire management team.”
Responding to the remarks, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said they were “simply the latest in a stream of desperate rhetoric coming out of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s government”.
He added: “Unlike in Russia, a free press is a cornerstone of our democracy and we take any threats made by Russia incredibly seriously.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy also hit out at Medvedev’s comments, describing them as a “gangster threat” that “smacks of desperation”.
“Our newspapers represent the best of British values: freedom, democracy and independent thinking,“ he said. “I stand with The Times.”
Medvedev, who served a single term as Russian president between 2008 and 2012, also used his reaction to The Times editorial to threaten NATO figures providing military assistance to Ukraine.
Referencing the article, which called Kirillov’s killing a “discriminate strike against an aggressor”, he said “this logic” meant “NATO decision-makers” helping Kyiv “are participating in a hybrid or conventional war against Russia”.
“All these individuals can and should be considered legitimate military targets for the Russian state. And for all Russian patriots, for that matter,“ he posted.
