Former President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and a close associate of President Vladimir Putin warned NATO member Poland today that it is now considered a “dangerous enemy” by Russia and could lose its statehood if it continues its current policies.

Medvedev, now vice-chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made this point in an 8,000-word op-ed on Russian-Polish relations, in which he wrote that Moscow now has “a dangerous enemy” in Poland.

“We will treat it (Poland) exactly as a historical enemy,” says Medvedev. “If there is no hope of reconciliation with the enemy, Russia should have only one and a very hard position regarding its fate».

“History has more than once given a merciless verdict to the arrogant Poles: no matter how ambitious the revanchist plans, their collapse can lead to the death of the Polish statehood as a whole.”

There was no immediate response to his comments from Poland.

The war in Ukraine has pushed already tense relations between Warsaw and Moscow to new lows.

Poland, which supports Ukraine, accuses Russia of trying to destabilize the country with disinformation and espionage campaigns. Moscow has condemned Warsaw’s hostile attitude towards it and Russian interests in Poland.

Medvedev, who came across as a liberal modernizer when he was president from 2008 to 2012, is now seen as a fiercely anti-Western Kremlin hawk, often attacking the West with insults.

Diplomats say his views are an indication of the thinking at the highest levels of the Kremlin’s elite.