'I hate them' Medvedev's slide from boyish liberal to bitter hawk

Joe Biden is a "strange grandfather with dementia".

- Shaun Walker

 The EU leadership are "lunatics". Russia will ensure that Ukraine "disappears from the map" in the near future. Welcome to another week as seen through the eyes of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and prime minister, who is serving as deputy head of the Russia's security council.

Medvedev has been on quite a political journey. Back in 2008, when he became Russia's president, he promised modernisation and liberalisation, and frequently spoke of his love for blogging and gadgets. Now, he is an enthusiastic participant in the macho posturing and genocidal rhetoric that have become the main currency of political discourse in wartime Moscow.

"I'm often asked why my Telegram posts are so harsh," wrote Medvedev recently. "Well, I'll answer: I hate them. They are bastards and degenerates. They want us, Russia, to die. And while I'm still alive, I will do everything to make them disappear." He did not specify whether the "they" in question referred to Ukrainians, western politicians, or both.

His physical transformation is as extraordinary as his ideological shift: a decade ago he was boyish, nerdy and seemed almost charmingly awkward wearing a suit and conducting the business of state. Now he looks jaded and puffy-faced, his eyes glazed over as he launches tirades against the west.

Medvedev's rebooted persona is an apparent attempt to retain political relevance in a climate that has darkened significantly in the decade since he left the presidency.

"He's trying to save himself from political oblivion by out-Heroding Herod," said Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin.