Russian President Vladimir Putin, with a touch of irony, praised Joe Biden on Thursday for calling him a “crazy SOB,” saying that the comment confirmed why the Kremlin considered Biden as a extra favorable future U.S. president to Donald Trump.
Biden made the “crazy SOB” comment as a part of a sentence about threats to the world – together with “that guy Putin and others,” the danger of nuclear battle and the existential risk to humanity from local weather change.
When requested concerning the crude Biden comment by Russian state tv, Putin smiled sarcastically and bit his lip earlier than trying on the floor.
“We are ready to work with any president. But I believe that for us, Biden is a more preferable president for Russia, and judging by what he has just said, I am absolutely right,” Putin mentioned, with a slight smile.
Putin, 71, mentioned that his earlier feedback saying that Biden, 81, was Russia’s most well-liked candidate had triggered Biden’s “adequate reaction.”
“It’s not like he can say to me, ‘Volodya, thank you, well done, you’ve helped me a lot,'” Putin mentioned. “You asked me which is better for us. I said it then, and I still think I can repeat it: Biden.”
For Putin, the remarks present the problem of navigating the upcoming U.S. presidential election which is prone to convey to energy both Biden, who has publicly insulted Putin, or Trump, 77, who has promised to finish the conflict in Ukraine swiftly.
The conflict in Ukraine, the demise of Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny and U.S. assertions that Russia plans to place a nuclear weapon in house have led to the most important disaster in relations between Russia and the West for the reason that Cold War.
Top Russian and U.S. diplomats say they don’t bear in mind a time when relations between the world’s two greatest nuclear powers have been worse, together with throughout the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Putin casts the United States and its allies as a crumbling empire that desires to destroy Russia and steal its pure sources. The West casts Putin as a dictator and a killer, and Putin’s Russia as an enemy.
But by no means has a serving U.S. president beforehand used such insulting phrases in public to explain a serving Kremlin chief. U.S. President Ronald Reagan offended the Kremlin in 1983 by calling the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” although private insults towards leaders have been uncommon within the Cold War.
‘Cowboy act,’ ‘ineffective outdated geezer’
The Kremlin had earlier mentioned that Biden had debased the United States along with his remark, casting the U.S. president’s comment as a part of a failed “Hollywood cowboy” act.
“The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov instructed Reuters. “But it debases those who use such vocabulary.”
Peskov mentioned the comment was “probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy. But honestly, I don’t think it’s possible.”
Others in Moscow have been much less restrained.
Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008-2012, mentioned the existential risk to the world got here from “useless old geezers, like Biden himself.” Medvedev mentioned Biden was “senile” and “ready to start a war with Russia.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova mentioned that the following time Biden used the phrase “crazy SOB” he ought to “try to remember that Americans associate it best with his own offspring, Hunter Biden.”
Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets mentioned “Biden insulted Putin” whereas Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, mentioned the comment reveals that the West was intensifying its try and demonize Putin forward of Russia’s March presidential election.
Biden mentioned final week after jail officers introduced Navalny’s demise in a Russian penal colony that it was “a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.” Navalny had beforehand accused Putin of attempting to kill him, an allegation the Kremlin denied.
Russian officers say the West rushed accountable Putin with out ready for proof. The Kremlin says the West’s response to Navalny’s demise is unacceptable and unjustified.
Biden mentioned in a speech in Warsaw in 2022 that Putin “cannot remain in power.” The White House performed down the comment, whereas hardliners in Russia noticed it as proof that the U.S. wished to topple Putin.
In 2021, Biden mentioned he thought Putin was a “killer.” Putin mentioned Biden phoned him later to provide a proof of why he used such phrases.
Source: www.dailysabah.com