Ex-Russian president suggests Japanese Prime Minister should ritually disembowel himself
0 views
Skip to first unread message
Bill Totten
Jan 22, 2023, 3:59:36 PM1/22/23
to Totten Bill Weblog@Google
Ex-Russian president suggests Japanese Prime Minister should ritually disembowel himself
Dmitry Medvedev accuses Fumio Kishida of shameful subservience to the US after Joe Biden meeting
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ff1dd91b6acbc0d295f1edb30cf00ae2afccdb83/0_12_2199_1320/master/2199.jpg?width=620&quality=45&dpr=2&s=none
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, has a history of making shocking statements. Photograph: SPUTNIK/Reuters
Reuters (January 14 2023)
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev {1} has accused Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida of shameful subservience to the US and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself.
His remarks on Saturday were the latest in a long line of shocking and provocative statements from Medvedev, who was once seen as a western-leaning reformer but has reinvented himself as an arch-hawk {2} since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.
Speaking at a news conference in Washington on Saturday, a day after a summit with US president Joe Biden {3} on Friday, Kishida made no mention of Medvedev's comment and was not asked about it.
Japanese officials travelling with Kishida did not immediately respond to requests for comment and, in Japan {4}, no one was immediately available for comment on the remarks at the prime minister's official residence or the foreign ministry outside normal working hours.
Medvedev is a prominent ally of President Vladimir Putin and serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and of a body overseeing the defence industry.
He was responding to a meeting on Friday between Kishida and Biden, after which the leaders issued a joint statement saying: "We state unequivocally that any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine {5} would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way".
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b72026c214236c6ce8ccdcc2a1f8808d3b26bb92/0_27_1000_600/master/1000.jpg?width=620&quality=45&dpr=2&s=none
Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
On Saturday, Kishida said the G7 summit of major industrialised nations in Hiroshima in May should demonstrate a strong will to uphold international order and rule of law after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Medvedev said the nuclear statement showed "paranoia" towards Russia and "betrayed the memory of hundreds of thousands of Japanese who were burned in the nuclear fire of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" - a reference to the atomic bombs that the US dropped on Japan to force its surrender at the end of the second world war.
Rather than demanding US repentance, Kishida had shown he was "just a service attendant for the Americans".
He said such shame could only be washed away by committing seppuku - a form of suicide by disembowelment, also known as hara-kiri - at a meeting of the Japanese cabinet after Kishida's return.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev has warned repeatedly that western meddling in the crisis could lead to nuclear war and has referred to Ukrainians as "cockroaches" in language Kyiv says is openly genocidal.
Putin has said that the risk of a nuclear war is rising but insisted Russia has not "gone mad" and that it sees its own nuclear arsenal as a purely defensive deterrent.
Links:
{1} https://www.theguardian.com/world/dmitry-medvedev
{2} https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/01/dmitry-medvedev-journey-liberal-anti-west-hawk-russia
{3} https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/joebiden
{4} https://www.theguardian.com/world/japan
{5} https://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/14/ex-russian-president-suggests-japanese-pm-should-ritually-disembowel-himself-dmitry-medvedev-fumio-kishida?
TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click
the appropriate link at the top or bottom of https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/2023/01/23/ex-russian-president-suggests-japanese-prime-minister-should-ritually-disembowel-himself/
Dmitry Medvedev accuses Fumio Kishida of shameful subservience to the US after Joe Biden meeting
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ff1dd91b6acbc0d295f1edb30cf00ae2afccdb83/0_12_2199_1320/master/2199.jpg?width=620&quality=45&dpr=2&s=none
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, has a history of making shocking statements. Photograph: SPUTNIK/Reuters
Reuters (January 14 2023)
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev {1} has accused Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida of shameful subservience to the US and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself.
His remarks on Saturday were the latest in a long line of shocking and provocative statements from Medvedev, who was once seen as a western-leaning reformer but has reinvented himself as an arch-hawk {2} since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.
Speaking at a news conference in Washington on Saturday, a day after a summit with US president Joe Biden {3} on Friday, Kishida made no mention of Medvedev's comment and was not asked about it.
Japanese officials travelling with Kishida did not immediately respond to requests for comment and, in Japan {4}, no one was immediately available for comment on the remarks at the prime minister's official residence or the foreign ministry outside normal working hours.
Medvedev is a prominent ally of President Vladimir Putin and serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and of a body overseeing the defence industry.
He was responding to a meeting on Friday between Kishida and Biden, after which the leaders issued a joint statement saying: "We state unequivocally that any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine {5} would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way".
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b72026c214236c6ce8ccdcc2a1f8808d3b26bb92/0_27_1000_600/master/1000.jpg?width=620&quality=45&dpr=2&s=none
Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
On Saturday, Kishida said the G7 summit of major industrialised nations in Hiroshima in May should demonstrate a strong will to uphold international order and rule of law after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Medvedev said the nuclear statement showed "paranoia" towards Russia and "betrayed the memory of hundreds of thousands of Japanese who were burned in the nuclear fire of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" - a reference to the atomic bombs that the US dropped on Japan to force its surrender at the end of the second world war.
Rather than demanding US repentance, Kishida had shown he was "just a service attendant for the Americans".
He said such shame could only be washed away by committing seppuku - a form of suicide by disembowelment, also known as hara-kiri - at a meeting of the Japanese cabinet after Kishida's return.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev has warned repeatedly that western meddling in the crisis could lead to nuclear war and has referred to Ukrainians as "cockroaches" in language Kyiv says is openly genocidal.
Putin has said that the risk of a nuclear war is rising but insisted Russia has not "gone mad" and that it sees its own nuclear arsenal as a purely defensive deterrent.
Links:
{1} https://www.theguardian.com/world/dmitry-medvedev
{2} https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/01/dmitry-medvedev-journey-liberal-anti-west-hawk-russia
{3} https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/joebiden
{4} https://www.theguardian.com/world/japan
{5} https://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/14/ex-russian-president-suggests-japanese-pm-should-ritually-disembowel-himself-dmitry-medvedev-fumio-kishida?
TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click
the appropriate link at the top or bottom of https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/2023/01/23/ex-russian-president-suggests-japanese-prime-minister-should-ritually-disembowel-himself/
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages