Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev reacted with malice to the result of the European elections and demanded the resignation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron. The results are a “reflection of your incompetent policy of supporting the Bandera leadership” in Ukraine “at the expense of your own population and your idiotic economic and migration policy,” Medvedev wrote on Monday on the social network X.
Moscow repeatedly uses the name “Bandera leadership” to defame the political leadership in Kiev as fascist. Stepan Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalist who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
Medvedev subsequently wrote that it was now time for Scholz and Macron to resign. “On the dustbin of history.” The 58-year-old, who still holds an influential position as deputy head of the National Security Council in Russia, was considered a beacon of hope for a liberal transformation in Russia during his presidency from 2008 to 2012.
Since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Medvedev has developed into a radical hardliner in Moscow politics, regularly threatening Kyiv and the West with inflammatory statements on social networks.
In contrast to Medvedev, the Kremlin has commented more cautiously on the result. The pro-European and pro-Ukrainian forces are still in power. However, the right-wing parties are in the process of overtaking them, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Russia will follow developments closely. He refuted accusations of interfering in European politics. In the run-up to the elections, there were reports of money payments from Russia to politicians on the right-wing spectrum.