Medvedev responds to ex-Polish general’s threat to bomb St. Petersburg

Poland should take care to not awaken the beast, former president of Russia and current deputy head of the country's Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has warned. He was responding to a call by a former high-ranking general to launch a long-range missile strike on St. Petersburg.

Earlier this week, Rajmund Andrzejczak, who led the Polish military from 2018 to 2023, said that Russia’s second city would be immediately bombed by Poland and its allies if Moscow were to attack NATO. The former armed forces chief also warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine could have serious security implications for the US-led military bloc.

Responding to the threat, Medvedev offered a reminder about the historical partitions of Poland in the 18th and 19th centuries, stressing that the nation had once been a part of Russia.

“The retired fool would better remember the numerous partitions of Poland and let sleeping dogs lie. Warsaw was once a part of the Russian Empire. Do you miss it?” the top official asked, responding to Andrzejczak’s remarks on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

Warsaw has emerged as one of the most vocal proponents of aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its military operation in the former Soviet republic. Poland was split between Russia, Prussia and Austria for more than a century. The greater part of the country was part of the Russian Empire between 1814 and 1915.

Although it was a satellite state of the USSR for 44 years beginning 1945, Poland was never under direct Soviet rule. It became a NATO member in 1999, along with Czech Republic and Hungary as part of the eastward expansion of the military bloc.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rejected the idea that Moscow has any plans to attack NATO, calling such speculation “nonsense” aimed at frightening and brainwashing Western audiences.