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When asked by ABC News if he considered Putin a murderer, Biden replied in the affirmative. The head of the White House said Putin would have to “pay” for Russia’s alleged interference in the 2020 US presidential election.
In an interview, Biden also recalled a meeting with then-Russian Prime Minister Putin in the Kremlin in 2011 when he was told, “Prime Minister, I look him in the eye and I don’t think he has a soul.”
According to Biden, Putin replied: “Then we understand each other.”
Linas Kojala, director of the Center for Eastern European Studies (RESC), says that rhetoric reflects the dynamics of bilateral relations between Russia and the United States and J. Biden’s approach to Putin in the long term.
“This is not in itself a turning point that will change relations between Russia and the United States. It has matured before. In addition, the United States and other Western countries have repeatedly linked the facts of the poisoning, the interference in the elections directly with the authorities. Russians and their top leaders. ” 15 minutes said the political scientist.
According to L. Kojala, this is how J. Biden sent a signal that sharp criticism on a rhetorical level will not be fought, in contrast to Donald Trump’s years of leadership.
The former US president said in an interview with Fox News in 2017 that he respected Putin and received a comment from a journalist that the Russian leader was a murderer.
“There are many murderers. Do you think our country is so innocent? I think our country is carrying out many murders, Joe, FYI. There is a lot of stupidity, a lot of murders, a lot of stupidity in the world right now,” he said then D. Trump, having repeatedly spoken positively about V. Putin in the past.
However, L. Kojala notes that US policy toward Russia is ongoing, despite D. Trump’s publicly announced desire to change relations.
We have seen an increase in the number of sanctions in recent years and their expansion, Ukraine has armed itself with lethal weapons, the administration and intelligence services have recognized the fact of interfering in the elections and decisions have been made in response.
In essence, Biden continues with this policy, while maintaining that cooperation in specific areas is possible. Where it fulfills not only bilateral interests but also more global ones ”, said the director of RESC.
According to L. Kojala, an example of this could be the extension of the New START agreement with Russia on the limitation of nuclear weapons. It is also being discussed that the fight against climate change could be a point of contact.
Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Center in Moscow, wrote on Twitter that Biden’s comments and threats of new sanctions “send US-Russian relations to even greater lows, but are unlikely to lead to a new crisis.”
“He showed that he was not afraid of Putin”
After Biden’s interview, the Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, was summoned to Moscow for consultations.
According to Foreign Affairs Representative Maria Zakharova, it is important for Moscow to determine how it can remedy relations between the United States and Russia “that Washington has effectively paralyzed in recent years.” Russia has an interest in avoiding “an irreversible deterioration of bilateral relations if the Americans understand the risks involved.”
Thursday, Biden’s words Putin himself commented.
“When I was a child, when we argued in the yard, we said: ‘Whoever says something in the other speaks for himself,'” the Russian leader said in a video conference with the Crimean people.
Biden’s interview came shortly after US intelligence declassified a report that said Russia was interfering in last year’s presidential election and seeking to aid Biden’s opponent, Trump.
The US government also announced Wednesday that it would extend restrictions on exports to Russia imposed earlier this month. This is the US response to Moscow for poisoning the currently imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navaln with the nerve paralyzing substance Novičiok.
The political scientist Konstantin Eggert, for his part, writes on the Deutsche Welle portal that in an interview, Biden showed that he was not afraid of Putin.
According to him, Biden’s actions in the past signaled caution: signing the New Start agreement is more beneficial for Russia than for the US, the White House refused to impose sanctions on German companies involved in the construction of the gas pipeline. Nord Stream 2, and Biden still did not speak to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to Eggert, the Kremlin will not leave such words of J. Biden unanswered: the Russian opposition is likely to take a hit, American social media may be blocked in Russia.
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