In recent years, the one who has approved by a liberal reformer at the Kremlin has mainly spoken of his statements that could not be more provocative. Accustomed to insults of all kinds, former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev has distinguished himself since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine for his reported outputs, who ended up causing the anger of Donald Trump.
In his accounts of Telegram and X, the former head of state (2008-2012) and the Prime Minister (2012-2020) Russian took a very offensive turn after the launch of the Russian offensive against Ukraine in early 2022.
Far from his image as a modernizing leader and interested in the new technologies of the past, he uses orders classification instead of appointing the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, he delights in an alleged decrease in Europeans and, regularly, regularly the spectrum of a destructive nuclear war with Western.
His messages generally receive a limited echo, according to an influence that is now limited in Russia, of which Dmitri Medvedev remains vice president of the Security Council. But they ended up irritating the president of the United States, which, unlike the measured tone used to Vladimir Putin, took it strongly.
Zelensky described as “cocaine clown”
The climbing took a spectacular turn on Friday when Donald Trump wrote that “he ordered that two nuclear submarines be positioned in the appropriate areas, in case these silly and incendiary statements are more serious than that.” He explained to the journalists that he reacted like this because the former Russian leader, to celebrate his 60th anniversary in September, had shown the nuclear threat.
After the first exchanges for interposed networks, Dmitri Medvedev had punished Donald Trump by citing “the famous dead hand”, an allusion to an ultra -secret automated system established by the Soviet Union during the Cold War to take control of his nuclear arsenal in case of destruction of his chain of command.
However, it had shown in recent months quite soft for the Republican, welcoming his desire to shake the world economic order by brutizing his traditional allies or the way he had rebuked Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
He had described, last February in Telegram, the Ukrainian president as “cocaine clown” and “insolent pork”, which “had finally received a good slap” of Donald Trump after his chaotic meeting in the White House.
Dmitri Medvedev is also very virulent with Europeans by accusing Friedrich Merz, then the future German chancellor, of “Lying as Goebbels”, appointed what was the Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany, or to rejoice in the difficulties of the “evil” president of the European Commission Ursula von Leyen.
In the shadow of Putin
Born in Leningrad, the old name of St. Petersburg, such as Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev has done his entire career in the shadow of his mentor. But this training lawyer, considered one of the leaders of the “liberal” wing of Poutinism, was marginalized by the emergence of the rival clan of “Siliki” (soldiers and security services).
In the 1990s, he entered the Foreign Relations Committee of the municipality, then led by Vladimir Putin, who transferred him to Moscow in 1999. He chose head of state in 2000, Vladimir Putin soon appointed him head of the presidential administration, then in 2005 Vice Primin-Prime Minister.
Dmitri Medvedev is elected president in 2008, Vladimir Putin can continue with two consecutive mandates. But, in what will be described as a simple “permutation”, Vladimir Putin is his prime minister before resuming the reins of power in 2012. The President, Dmitri Medvedev, shows a proximity to his American counterpart Barack Obama in 2010, and his desire to relaunch the relationship with the United States.
Apparent modernity
This rock lover, a declared fan of the American group Linkin Park, then cultivates an image of modernity, which is presented during a visit to Silicon Valley an iPhone by Apple Steve Jobs founder, or opens its Twitter account at the company’s facilities. In international politics, this approach results in the simple abstention of Russia, instead of a veto, during the vote of a resolution on Libya in the UN Security Council in 2011.
This decision, which will allow NATO to launch the military intervention that will lead to Gaddafi’s overthrow, will arouse the reprobation of Vladimir Putin. Become Prime Minister after the return to the Kremlin of Vladimir Putin in 2012, he gradually vanished, reduced to technical questions and captured the dissatisfaction of the Russians in the face of economic difficulties.
Finally, it was thanked in early 2020, existing since especially in the public space for its provocative messages. Among his recent escapes: in 2024, French president Emmanuel Macron had expressed, who was traveling to Ukraine in the war, calling him “zoological hole” and had recommended “his office to take several pairs of covers.”
Source: BFM TV
