Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, on Wednesday threatened Retaliation against the editors of the British newspaper The Times for calling the assassination of a Russian general “legitimate.”

The times said in an editorial on Tuesday that the targeted killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, chief of the Russian army’s chemical weapons department, in an explosion in Moscow was a “legitimate act of defense of a threatened nation.”

On his personal Telegram channel, Medvedev called the “lousy jackals of the Times who cowardly hid behind an editorial” as “accomplices of those who committed crimes against Russia.”

“Makes sense! Be careful in this regard! Because a lot of things happen in London,” wrote Medvedev, who was Russia’s president between 2008 and 2012.

The ominous threat appears to be a veiled reference to the radiation poisoning of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. More than a decade later, the European Court of Human Rights found Russia responsible for Litvinenko’s murder.

Medvedev said that according to his “logic,” the “legion” of officials from NATO countries providing military assistance to Ukraine are “legitimate military targets” for both the Russian army and all “patriots of Russia.”

Medvedev plays a limited role in Russia’s political system and is now best known for his anti-Western diatribes on social media.