Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, the former Prime Minister of Russia, reacted on social media to the assassination of American MAGA political activist Charlie Kirk yesterday.
Medvedev wrote: “Political crimes and assasinations [sic] have been carried out lately by a variety of left-wing liberal scum who support Banderite Kiev. Fico, Kirk. Who’s next? Maybe it’s time for the MAGA team to realize that by supporting Ukraine, they’re supporting murderers.”
[Note: A Banderite is a name for the members of the OUN-B, a faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. In Russia, the term is used as a pejorative for Ukrainians who support sovereignty — Ukraine separate from Russia.]
In his message, Medvedev namechecks Robert Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia who was shot in May 2024 by a septuagenarian with a semi-automatic pistol. Fico, unlike Kirk, survived the attack. The would-be Fico assassin claimed his motivation was, as EuroNews described it, the Prime Minister’s “cancellation of a special prosecution office dealing with corruption, the end of military support for Ukraine and the government’s approach to culture.”
[Elected for his fourth term on a platform calling for closer Russia-Slovakia relations, Fico joined Vladimir Putin last week in Beijing for the celebration and military parade hosted by China’s Xi Jinping.]
No sense of awareness coming from a guy whose boss has murdered all his rivals. Falling out of windows is an epidemic in Moscow. https://t.co/trphQ6bGsE
— Rep. Don Bacon
(@RepDonBacon) September 11, 2025
Pro-Ukraine U.S. Congressman Don Bacon (R-Nebraska), who in March declared that “real Republicans know that Putin’s Russia hates the West and freedom,” replied to Medvedev: “No sense of awareness coming from a guy whose boss has murdered all his rivals. Falling out of windows is an epidemic in Moscow.”
Bacon, one of many U.S. representatives sanctioned by the Russian government, has criticized President Donald Trump‘s handling of the Russian-Ukraine war, saying “he’s been very weak… he’s been a bit of an appeaser to Russia.”
In February, after Trump’s highly contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Bacon described the televised event as “a bad day for America’s foreign policy.”