One of Vladimir Putin's cronies has hit out at "b******s" and "degenerates" in the West who wish "death" upon Russia.
Former president Dmitry Medvdev - one of the tyrant's closest allies - is now the deputy head of the Kremlin's security council.
Recently he has made poisonous attacks on Russia's enemies in what some see as a bid for a political comeback after he was ousted as prime minister.
His latest message on his Telegram channel said: “I am often asked why my Telegram posts are so harsh.
“I respond - because I hate them. They are bastards, degenerates.
“They want death to us, to Russia. And while I am alive, I will be doing everything so that they disappear.”
In earlier comments he accused Poland’s leaders of being “imbeciles” who carried out "Russophobic" policies.
And he claimed last month that the West was pushing the world to nuclear war by supplying arms to Ukraine.
“The cynicism of Western ‘talking heads’ is becoming more and more blatant.
“The thesis that Russia frightens the world with a nuclear conflict is being pushed to the top of the agenda,” said a man who once had his finger on the Kremlin’s nuclear button.
One theory is that the outbursts from Medvedev, 56, show he is seeking a comeback to big time politics amid claims that Putin, 69, is seriously ill, and may have to relinquish the Kremlin.
His anti-Western rants are seen as appealing to hardliners in the Russian military and security structures, who have regarded him as too-liberal and a lightweight, and to seek to regain the trust of Putin.
But it is unclear that he would triumph in a power struggle if Putin is forced to bow out.
Some say Putin is eyeing the Agriculture minister, Dmitry Patrushev, 44, as his long term replacement, rather than a return to Medvedev who was president between 2008 and 2012.
He is the son of Kremlin grey cardinal Nikolai Patrushev, 70, a former head of the FSB, who is Putin’s closest security henchman, and the man who convinced him Ukraine was awash with Nazis.
Patrushev junior is seen as a potential puppet leader with an ailing Putin and Patrushev senior pulling strings in the background.
If Putin suddenly dies, under the Russian constitution, Mikhail Mishustin, 56, the technocrat prime minister who replaced Medvedev in 2020, becomes the acting president.
