Medvedev says Texas could be poised to launch civil war

Former Russian President and steadfast pro-Kremlin politician Dmitry Medvedev floated a worrying warning about the potential for Texas to kick off a new civil war in the US. But what Medvedev said needs a little context. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been engaged in a complicated legal battle against the Department of Justice as he’s tried to find ways to close the border between the state of Texas and Mexico in order to halt illegal migration in the US. 

As part of Abbott’s efforts, he ordered razor wire to be installed along parts of the southern border according to The Guardian, actions which the news organization noted were not within Abbott’s powers according to the law. 

Immigration matters are strictly within the purview of the federal government according to the 2012 Supreme Court case Arizona v. United States. However, Abbott invoked the invasion clause in order to bypass US law. 

The Guardian described the invasion clause as a “loophole” in constitutions of both the United States and Texas constitutions. Abbott argued that the migrants on the southern border were akin to a foreign enemy force. 

Abbott’s move was in response to a January 22nd Supreme Court 5-4 ruling that would allow federal border agents to remove the razor wire placed along the country’s border, a court decision that only inflamed tensions.

On January 24th, Abbott released a statement in which he accused President Joe Biden of violating his “oath to faithfully execute immigration laws enacted by Congress,” which in turn has led to a new constitutional crisis. 

Abbott argued that Texas has a “right to self-defense” against the migrants crossing the border, and Newsweek pointed out that shortly after Abbor issued his public statement, 25 other state governors voiced their support. 

Conservative media outlets and political pundits also began reporting that the situation might suggest a “civil war could be underway” according to Newsweek, which also said most blamed Biden for what was happening. 

It was against this backdrop that Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, posted his take on the unfolding situation to Twitter and suggested that Texas could launch a civil war. 

“Establishing a People's Republic of Texas is getting more and more real; something I wrote about at the end of 2022 in a jocular forecast,” Medvedev wrote before he went on to say Biden couldn’t handle the migration crisis. 

Medvedev reiterated what was happening in the United States and wrote that it was “yet another vivid example of the US hegemony getting weaker” through the choices that the country and its leaders made on domestic policy. 

“With their inaction, these very authorities can drive the people of Texas up the wall – the very people who are even now mulling over separation. There are known cases in history when some states tried to break away from the Union,” Medvedev wrote. 

“The end result was the bloody civil war which cost thousands upon thousands of lives. Either way, America can face an unsolvable constitutional crisis, and for long, fall into the abyss of a new, possibly even more destructive civil confrontation,” Medvedev added. 

However, the former Russian president’s comments haven’t been taken too seriously by the United States according to Newsweek. One State Department official told the news organization: "We know by now not to take Medvedev seriously," adding that it was "standard Kremlin nonsense."

This isn’t the first time Medvedev has criticized the domestic disarray the United States has been experiencing. In August 2023, he wrote that the problems in American society were “irreconcilable” according to the Russian News Agency (TASS). 

"America is currently in a state of disarray and conflict with itself. In my view, this discord is irreconcilable in a way, and such domestic conflicts often lead to civil wars…I don’t know what will happen in the US but this is the current level of conflict," Medvedev said. 

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