We stand with The Times writers

With its appalling record of killing opponents, including those who believed they were living safely in Britain, the murderous Putin regime’s warning that editorial writers at our sister paper, The Times, are “mangy jackals” who “are now legitimate military targets” must be taken seriously. Responding to a powerful leading article in The Times on Wednesday, which said the assassination by Ukraine in the heart of Moscow of top Russian military commander Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was “a legitimate act of defence by a threatened nation”, Vladimir Putin’s closest ally, former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, labelled the “entire management team” at The Times “jackals” and “bastards”. “Be careful,” said Mr Medvedev, who invariably provides advance notice of Putin’s atrocities, in doubling down on his ominous threat to The Times. “After all, a lot of things happen in London.”

Despite the regime’s dreadful record, no one should be intimidated by the contemptible Putin bootlicker’s warning. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy got it right when they said his bellicosity was a sign of the Russian despot’s “desperation” over the deepening quagmire in Ukraine, exacerbated by the stunning reverse he has suffered in Syria. Mr Medvedev’s warning sums up all that is rotten and depraved about a monstrous, corrupt dictatorship. As Mr Lammy said, Britain’s newspapers stand for everything Putin’s Russia does not: freedom, democracy and independent thinking. And decency. “I stand with The Times,” he added. So do we at The Australian. Hopefully, the revolting Mr Medvedev’s crude warning is a sign the regime is in even deeper trouble than many believed.