Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev claimed Thursday that Western support for Ukraine is linked to growing political violence in the United States after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead while speaking at a university campus in Utah.
In an Oval Office address on Wednesday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the killing, which he blamed on rhetoric from the “radical left.” Kirk, a close Trump ally, has risen to prominence by debating university students across the country and founded the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA.
Utah state police launched a manhunt for Kirk’s shooter.
Following the killing, Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, blamed the spate of politically motivated attacks in the United States in recent years, including two assassination attempts on Trump, on “a variety of left-wing liberal scum who support Banderite Kyiv.”
“Who’s next? Maybe it’s time for the MAGA team to realize that by supporting Ukraine, they’re supporting murderers,” Medvedev wrote in an English-language post on X.
He did not elaborate on his claim, which resembled many of the vitriolic and outlandish statements he has made since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While there was no immediate reaction to Medvedev’s post from U.S. officials, his past online remarks have provoked the ire of top White House staff and Trump himself.
In August, the U.S. president said he deployed two nuclear submarines in response to what he called “provocative statements” made by Medvedev, who had earlier written about hypothetical atomic strikes against the West.
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