E-Paper
Japan PM should disembowel himself: Russian ex-president's shocking remark
Russia-Ukraine War: Dmitry Medvedev said that rather than demanding repentance for this, Fumio Kishida showed that he was "just a service attendant for the Americans".
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev accused Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida of “shameful subservience” to the United States saying that he should ritually disembowel himself. Dmitry Medvedev is a prominent ally of Vladimir Putin and serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and of a body overseeing the defence industry in Russia.
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The comments came after a statement from Fumio Kishida and US president Joe Biden, through which Japan and US said, "We state unequivocally that any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way."
Dmitry Medvedev said the 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", referencing atomic bombs that US dropped on Japan at the end of the World War Two. Dmitry Medvedev said that rather than demanding repentance for this, Fumio Kishida showed that he was "just a service attendant for the Americans".
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Dmitry Medvedev also 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 Fumio Kishida's return.
Earlier too, Dmitry Medvedev has spoken against Western meddling in Russian invasion of Ukraine warning that it could lead to nuclear war. He has also referred to Ukrainians as "cockroaches" in language Kyiv said was openly genocidal.
