Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov pounced on Sen. Lindsey Graham's comment calling for someone to take out Russian Vladimir Putin – questioning his sanity and suggesting he was drunk.
The slap from Putin's mouthpiece came after Graham Tweeted Thursday night that it was time for a 'Brutus' to emerge amid Putin throwing Russia's forces into a bloody invasion of Ukraine – a comment that U.S. commentators immediately warned could fuel Russian propaganda.
'Unfortunately, in such an extremely tense atmosphere, there is a hysterical escalation of Russophobia,' Peskov responded. 'These days, not everyone manages to maintain sobriety, I would even say sanity, and many lose their mind,' he added.
He was responding to Graham's comment calling for 'somebody' to assassinate Putin – with a reference to Claus Von Stauffenberg, the German Army officer who tried to assassinate Hitler during World War II, as well as to the Roman politician Marcus Junius Brutus, who played a key role in the assassination of Julius Caesar.
'Is there a Brutus in Russia? Graham asked. 'Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service.'
Graham doubled down on his comments in an interview Friday on 'Fox and Friends.'
'I'm hoping someone in Russia will understand he is destroying Russia and you need to take this guy out back any means possible.'
In yet another historical analogy, he said Russia needed an 'Eliot Ness or a Wyatt Earp' to take action – this time referencing the prohibition agent who hunted down mobster Al Capone and the lawman who took part in the shootout at the O.K. Corral in 1881 that resulted in the deaths of three outlaws.
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