A top ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Poland on Thursday that the NATO member state was now considered a “dangerous enemy” by Russia and could end up losing its statehood if it continued on its current course.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the comments in an 8,000-word article on Russian-Polish relations, saying Moscow now had a “dangerous enemy” in Poland.
“We will treat it (Poland) precisely as a historical enemy,” Medvedev said. “If there is no hope for reconciliation with the enemy, Russia should have only one and a very tough attitude regarding its fate.”
“History has more than once delivered a merciless verdict to the presumptuous Poles: no matter how ambitious the revanchist plans may be, their collapse could lead to the death of Polish statehood in its entirety.”
There was no immediate response to his comments from Poland.
The war in Ukraine has sent already tense relations between Warsaw and Moscow to new lows.
Poland, which has backed Ukraine, accuses Russia of trying to destabilise the country with disinformation campaigns and espionage. Moscow has condemned what it sees as Warsaw’s hostile stance towards it and Russian interests in Poland.
Medvedev, who cast himself as a liberal moderniser when he was president from 2008-2012, now casts himself as a fiercely anti-Western Kremlin hawk, often lashing out at the West with insults.
Diplomats say his views give an indication of thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
