A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking "the end of our motherland" and said escalating tensions could result in a nuclear disaster.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council who also previously served as the country's president and prime minister, wrote in a post on Russian social networking site VK.com that Russia has been "the target of the same mediocre and primitive game" since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"This means that Russia must be humiliated, limited, shaken, divided and destroyed," Medvedev wrote, saying if Americans succeed in that objective, "here is the result: the largest nuclear power with an unstable political regime, weak leadership, a collapsed economy and the maximum number of nuclear warheads aimed at targets in the US and Europe."
The Hill has reached out to the State Department for comment.
Putin last month put Russia's nuclear defense systems on high alert, raising fears of an escalation between the U.S. and Russia, two nuclear superpowers.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month has drawn widespread condemnation from countries across the world. The U.S. has led in imposing unprecedented sanctions against Russia as tensions ratchet up between the two countries, reaching a level not seen since the Cold War.
Before invading Ukraine, Putin had raised concerns about the large presence of NATO in Eastern Europe and had demanded Ukraine never join the alliance, a call rebuffed by the U.S. and its allies.
President Biden called Putin a "war criminal" last week, and on Wednesday Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Despite the tensions over Ukraine, U.S. leaders have long said they want peace and a stable Russia.
