Former Russian president threatens to retaliate with sanctions against the West

The deputy head of Russia’s Security Council said Saturday that Russia may respond in a hostile way to sanctions from the U.S. and European Union (EU), The Associated Press reported.

In a post on a Russian social media site, Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia is considering leaving its latest nuclear arms deal with the U.S., cutting off diplomatic ties with the U.S. and EU, and freezing the assets of Western countries after many of them condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.

Medvedev added that Russia was mulling restoring the death penalty after being removed from a European rights group.

“We are being driven out of everywhere, punished and threatened, but we don’t feel scared,” Medvedev, the former president of Russia, said.

Medvedev claimed that the U.S. had been “cowardly” in leaving Afghanistan and was using sanctions against Russia to make up for “shameful decisions” it had made in the past, according to the wire service. He described the Western sanctions as a show of “political impotence.”

The White House levied sanctions against Russia that restrict its financial operations, banned technology exports into the country, and froze the assets of President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Other countries in the EU and Canada have follow suit and warned of stronger sanctions if Russia continues its invasion, which has spread to the capital city of Kyiv. 

“There is no particular need in maintaining diplomatic relations” with Western nations, claimed Medvedev in his posts, according to the AP.

“We may look at each other in binoculars and gunsights,” he said.

Medvedev served as president of Russia from 2008 to 2012, during the time that Putin was required to leave office due to term limits. Putin served as prime minister during those years before switching offices with Medvedev, who then served as prime minister for a span of eight years.