Russian Foreign Ministry: Trump Arrest a 'Crisis of Liberalism'

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday refused to comment on the arrest of former President Donald Trump, ostensibly because doing so would constitute interference with America’s internal affairs.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, however, ventured that Trump’s arrest represented a “crisis of liberalism.”

Peskov was asked for the Kremlin’s opinion at a press conference on Wednesday morning.

“We do not consider ourselves entitled to interfere in any way in the internal affairs of the United States. We believe that the United States is not entitled to interfering in our affairs, either. Therefore, we would not like to comment on this,” Peskov replied. 

Peskov had a similar response when asked about the news Trump had been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last Thursday.

“I don’t think this is a topic for us to comment on,” the Kremlin spokesman said last week. “These are internal U.S. processes that we do not consider necessary to comment on.”

On the other hand, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a Sputnik radio interview on Wednesday that Trump’s arrest was a landmark moment in the collapse of the American model of government.

“This is called the crisis of liberalism. This is when a system which has been declared to be absolutely free, where there is nothing to restrain human outbursts, the expression of passions in any way, and this has been raised to the level of a cult,” she said.

Zakharova said the Western model of liberal democracy “ends up devouring itself or rejecting itself.”

In another Sputnik radio interview on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said relations between the U.S. and Russia have “already passed” the Cold War stage and entered “the phase of a hot conflict.”

“We are witnessing the direct involvement of that country in a hybrid war with Russia on various fronts,” he said, referring among other things to efforts by the United States and its NATO allies to help Ukraine resist Russia’s invasion.

Ryabkov stressed the same point as Peskov about Russia’s expectation that other countries would refrain from interfering in its internal affairs – and warned Moscow is willing to use nuclear weapons if an attempt is made to topple the government of dictator Vladimir Putin.

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“The way our American opponents are recklessly, provocatively, and in many respects absolutely carelessly moving up the escalation ladder, the way they are blinded by their absolutely absurd certainty about their ability to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia makes one doubt their mental faculties and their common sense,” he said.

Ryabkov said Western nations are “playing with fire in the truest sense of the word,” meaning nuclear fire, by discussing regime change in Moscow or ignoring Russia’s security concerns.

“If this trend persists, we will be ready to take all measures and to use all means at our disposal in order to defend ourselves and ensure that our sovereignty be guaranteed,” he said.

“Underestimation of this resolve of ours is perhaps the worst thing that can happen or, conversely, not happen in the minds of our adversaries. We caution them against making fatal mistakes,” he warned.