Russia Warns U.S. Is 'Playing With Fire' in Its Continued Support for Ukraine

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

Russian diplomats are warning the United States it is “playing with fire” in its indirect war with Ukraine as it continues to receive billions of dollars from the West. 

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov accuses the U.S. of being controlled by “gopniks”— a term used for violent petty criminals— and “fashionistas” on Friday, warning that the situation could get out of hand quickly. 

Referring to the U.S., Ryabkov told state TASS news agency: “We warn that they are playing with fire. They have long been in a state of indirect war with the Russian Federation.” 

“They somehow fail to realize that, in order to satisfy their own geopolitical ideas, they are approaching a phase in which it will be very difficult to control what is happening and to prevent a dramatic crisis,” he continued. 

He cautioned Washington leaders that if the U.S. continues to fund and support Ukraine, it would become difficult to prevent a failure in international relations that ultimately leads to war.

While Ryabkov offers suggestions for why America may not be heeding Russia’s warnings, its leaders having entered a bunker mentality and not taking on external information, for instance,  ultimately his put down is that Washington is too stupid and unsophisticated to understand.

Turning around some of the most common criticisms leveled at Putin’s Russia, that it is led by corrupt mafia gangsters, Ryabkov deployed the Russian nickname for low-status antisocial petty criminals “gopniks” for the American leadership. America’s European allies don’t escape this onslaught of insults, either, as they are castigated as being led by “fashionistas” who flock to the latest ideas without critical thought. Via Breitbart News. 

Ryabkov said that it is obvious to foreign countries that the U.S. is blind to the risks it poses to its nation in its continued support for Ukraine. 

“This rhetoric, this drumming, this constant baiting of their allies to help Ukraine even more, to expand their support, shows only one thing: people are living, as they themselves say, 'in a box’," he said. "This is the great risk of the current situation because it is impossible to get through to them [the Americans].”

He explained that NATO is responsible for the Ukraine-Russia war and the diplomatic deadlock after the war stretched eastward toward the Russian frontier in a “manic advance”. Ryabkov said that this was in chasing a “phantom” of security.

“Russia will put the topic of 'red lines' aside and will respond to the West in a mirror manner," he added.