(CNSNews.com) – Offering an “absurd” set of predictions for the world in 2023 – a wishlist on his part? – former Russian president and close Putin ally Dimitry Medvedev on Monday envisaged an American civil war and breakup of the states, some of which would afterwards elect Elon Musk as president.
Musk responded on Twitter: “Lol @RemindMe_OfThis in one year.”
Medvedev also anticipated Britain’s return to the European Union, which would then disintegrate, followed by war between France and a new “Fourth Reich” comprising Germany and its satellites. Oil and gas prices that would significantly benefit Russia also featured on the list, as did the disintegration of Ukraine.
The former president and prime minister, now deputy chairman of President Vladimir Putin’s national security council, has emerged this year as one of Russia's more sardonic commentators on global developments, using his Telegram account to troll the West, with particular vitriol directed at former allies of Moscow – like Poland and the Baltic states – that are vocal opponents of the invasion of Ukraine.
In Monday’s tongue-in-cheek Telegram posting, Medvedev states that new year predictions often involve people competing in offering “the most unexpected and even absurd” propositions.
“We will also do our part.”
Medvedev’s list for 2023:
1. Oil prices rise to $150 a barrel and natural gas to $5,000 per 1,000 cubic meters.
2. Britain returns to the European Union.
3. The European Union then collapses, along with the euro currency.
4. Poland and Hungary capture the western regions of “the former Ukraine.”
5. Germany creates a “Fourth Reich” with Poland, the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, the “Kyiv Republic,” “and other outcasts.”
6. War breaks out between France and the Fourth Reich, leading to a new partition of Europe.
7. Northern Ireland leaves the U.K. and joins the Republic of Ireland.
8. American Civil War: California and Texas split, declare independence; Texas and Mexico create union state; Elon Musk is elected president “in some of the states assigned to the Republicans after the civil war.”
9. Major stock markets and financial activity move from the U.S. and Europe to Asia.
10. The Bretton Woods financial system, IMF and World Bank collapse; The dollar and euro are rejected as world reserve currencies. Gold standard returns, and “digital fiat currencies” become actively used.
Medvedev concluded by wishing his “Anglo-Saxon friends” and their allies (“their happily oinking piglets!”) a happy new year.
Among his online posts his year, Medvedev has issued veiled threats of nuclear attack against NATO aspirants Sweden and Finland, and warned of a biblical apocalypse resulting from the West’s provision of weaponry to Ukraine. He frequently uses coarse language to denigrate Western leaders.
The unorthodox social media activity does not appear to have done his political career any harm. On Monday, Putin appointed him to a newly-created post of first deputy of the Military Industrial Commission, a body that oversees cooperation between the armed forces and defense industry, and is chaired by Putin.
Medvedev was president of Russia from 2008-2012, and appointed Putin his prime minister a day after taking office. Putin had been prohibited by the constitution from serving a third term as president, and Medvedev was widely seen as his hand-picked placeholder.
When Putin won the next presidential election in 2012, the two exchanged positions. Medvedev served as prime minister until 2020.