Senior Russian politicians reacted Sunday to news of the death of Sen. John McCain, describing him as a Cold Warrior who maintained a consistently hard line on Russia during his long political career.

Konstantin Kosachev, the chair of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian senate, described McCain in a Facebook post as a “colorful senator” who was also a “a highly ideologically driven politician.”

“McCain turned out to be a mirror of the era he grew up in,” Kosachev said, saying McCain was a Cold War hawk whose worldview “divided the world into friends and enemies,” with the main enemy being Russia.

Oleg Morozov, another senator, said McCain was “honest in his hatred of Russia,” state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.

“He is the symbol of outspoken anti-Russian thinking, in essence: Russia cannot be anything other than hostile,” Morozov said, according to RIA-Novosti.

Alexey Pushkov, another prominent Russian senator, recalled engaging in a debate with McCain on the Syria crisis at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“He was preoccupied only with regime change in Syria,” Pushkov said on Twitter. “At what cost, and what forces would come to power in Damascus after that did not concern him.”

Russian state television: McCain a “symbol of Russophobia”

Russian state television on Sunday described Sen. John McCain as the “main symbol of Russophobia,” calling the senator an ardent hawk and opponent of Russian national interests.

The Sunday evening edition of the news program Vesti highlighted McCain’s bellicose rhetoric, saying world affairs “would have been even more catastrophic” had he not lost his presidential bid in 2008.

“McCain was not opposed to sending bombers to Iran, North Korea, Nigeria and Syria,” the broadcast stated.

Russian state television also highlighted McCain’s support for pro-democratic revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, suggesting that the senator sought to contain or encircle Russia.

“Long before the coup in Ukraine, McCain had become the main symbol of Russophobia, calling Russia a bigger threat than ISIS and calling for turning Syria into a second Afghanistan for Russia,” the broadcast stated.