EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said to "not be afraid" after Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev called NATO a "legitimate military target" in an angry response to a newspaper editorial that defended the December 17 assassination in Moscow of a high-ranking Russian general by Ukrainian security services.
Reacting to an editorial in the London-based Times newspaper that called the December 17 killing of a high-ranking Russian officer "a legitimate act of defense by a threatened nation," Medvedev, the former president who has become known for his increasingly anti-Western rants even though he has a limited role in the political system, said Moscow should apply the same logic in its outlook.
Medvedev accused NATO and officials from countries allied with Ukraine in its battle to repel invading Russian troops of being participants in the conflict, making them "legitimate military targets."
Asked about a response, Kallas told RFE/RL on December 18 that "Russia is always threatening. And it is meant to scare us, so what we see is the threats we have heard before."
"I think the only response we can have is not to be afraid," she said, speaking in Brussels before a meeting of EU leaders to discuss the war.
SEE ALSO: Migrants On Edge As Russia Arrests Uzbek Over Ukraine's Assassination Of GeneralThe U.S. State Department told RFE/RL that Medvedev's comments amounted to more irresponsible rhetoric from the Kremlin and reiterated that the United States and NATO do not seek a military conflict with Russia.
"The Kremlin's aggression against Ukraine is the most significant and direct threat to Europe's security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area. It is the Kremlin that started this war, and Putin could end it today," the State Department's press office said in a statement e-mailed to RFE/RL.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Medvedev's comments were "simply the latest in a stream of desperate rhetoric" to come out of Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.
"Unlike in Russia, a free press is a cornerstone of our democracy and we take any threats made by Russia incredibly seriously," the spokesman added.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy also hit out at Medvedev's comments, describing them as a "gangster threat" that "smacks of desperation."
"Our newspapers represent the best of British values: freedom, democracy and independent thinking," he said. "I stand with The Times."
In its article, The Times said the assassination was "a discriminate strike against an aggressor" and that it underlines the need for Western governments to give Ukraine "all support it needs to fight a just war of self-defense."
"All officials of NATO countries involved in decisions about military assistance to Ukraine and those participating in hybrid or conventional warfare against Russia are now considered legitimate military targets for the Russian state and all Russian patriots," Medvedev wrote in response.
When asked about Medvedev's comments, NATO's press office responded by email saying: "We will get back to you if we have something to say.”
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces (RKhBZ) and his assistant were killed by a bomb concealed in a scooter outside the entrance of a Moscow building early on December 17.
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The Moment A Russian General Was Killed By A Scooter Bomb In Moscow (Video)
Kirillov is one of a number of Russian officers and pro-war figures to be killed in Russia and in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. His death came a week after a senior official from a Russian company that develops cruise missiles used by Moscow in the war was reportedly shot dead just outside the capital.
Medvedev's rhetoric draws from the Kremlin's long-term narrative of blaming Western "forces" for anti-Russian actions worldwide and acts of sabotage and "terrorism" on Russian territory.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told a briefing on December 17 that the United States was neither involved in Kirillov's killing nor aware of it in advance.
Russian investigators termed the killing a "terrorist" attack and immediately attributed it to Ukrainian intelligence. On December 18, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had detained a suspect -- a 29-year-old unnamed Uzbek national -- in the case.
Medvedev also threatened retribution against journalists from The Times, ominously warning that the newspaper could be included in those "legitimate military targets," adding that "in London, many things happen…be careful."
That warning appears to be a thinly veiled reference to the radiation poisoning of former FSB officer and Kremlin critic Aleksandr Litvinenko in London in 2006, and the attempted assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in the British city of Salisbury with a deadly nerve agent in 2018.