Rising star in the Kremlin, Russia’s Medvedev predicts war in the West

(Reuters) – Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a staunch Vladimir Putin loyalist who got a new job this week, predicted a war between Germany and France next year and a civil war in the United States that would lead to Elon Musk’s presidency.

Medvedev, deputy head of Putin’s advisory security council, served as president during the four-year term when Putin took over as prime minister. And he appears to have seen his fortunes grow in the Kremlin, which said on Monday he would now serve as Putin’s deputy on a body that oversees the military industry.

In his list of predictions for 2023, posted on his personal Telegram and Twitter accounts, he also predicted Britain’s return to the European Union, which in turn would collapse.

Musk, the Tesla boss who now owns Twitter, responded to the suggestion that he appear as President of the United States by tweeting back “Epic thread!!” , although he also criticized some of Medvedev’s predictions. Medvedev has praised Musk in the past for proposing to cede Ukraine’s territory to Russia in a peace deal.

Since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev has reinvented himself as a staunch hawk, laying out the conflict in apocalyptic religious terms and referring to Ukrainians as “cockroaches” in language Kyiv says is genocidal. Last week he paid a rare foreign visit to China, holding talks on foreign policy with President Xi Jinping.

Political expert Vladimir Pastukhov said Medvedev’s outspoken public figure appears to have favored his boss.

“Medvedev’s Telegram posts have found at least one reader, and indeed an admirer: Putin,” Pastukhov, a professor of political science at University College London, wrote on his own telegram.

(Reporting from Reuters)