In a New Years message posted to his social media Jan. 9, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev had a characteristically blunt message. “The year began turbulently,” he began, with the “sheer thuggery and vileness” of the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This has caused “a civilizational catastrophe in the sphere of international relations,” he notes.
However, he reserved more attention to the U.S. seizing of the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera, providing a nuanced view of the crisis. The vessel obviously sought to use the Russian flag as “protection from illegal American sanctions,” a decision which he said was “not entirely appropriate” and led to “predictable consequences.” Regardless, however, the actions chosen by the United States “constitute a criminal seizure of a civilian vessel. And the response to it should be entirely outside the framework of the Law of the Sea Convention.”
Medvedev, who is also a former Russian President, concludes with the following: “In any case, one must bear in mind that international relations have turned into outright Bedlam since the start of the year. And we must behave accordingly: there are far too many violent lunatics around. With the understanding that such patients are never calmed by the gentle persuasion of kind psychiatrists. Only by orderlies with massive fists and an impassive expression. Because dangerous madmen require either a straitjacket—or a lifesaving injection of haloperidol. As happened last night in the west of the Bandera-run Ukrainian periphery.” I.e. Russia’s use of its Oreshnik hypersonic missile.
