Russian ex-President Medvedev says Japanese PM should disembowel himself

FILE PHOTO: Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers remarks during a visit with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other U.S. and Japanese officials to NASA headquarters in Washington, U.S., January 13, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis

(Reuters) - Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday of shameful subservience to the United States and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself.

It was the latest in a long line of shocking and provocative statements from Medvedev, who was once seen as a Western-leaning reformer but has reinvented himself as an arch-hawk since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.