During a campaign fundraiser in San Francisco, the US president called his Russian counterpart a ‘crazy SOB’.
The Kremlin has lashed out at United States President Joe Biden, saying his comments about his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, were a poor attempt to appear like a “Hollywood cowboy”.
Biden on Wednesday called Putin a “crazy SOB [son of a b****]” during a fundraiser for his re-election campaign in San Francisco as he spoke about threats to the world, including “that guy Putin and others”, the risk of nuclear conflict and the existential threat to humanity from climate change.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Thursday condemned the remarks and said it was “unlikely to infringe on our president”.
“But it debases those who use such vocabulary,” he said.
It is not the first time Biden has used the offensive term. In 2022, he was heard on a hot mic calling a Fox News journalist an SOB. And he has in the past also described Putin as a “butcher” and a “war criminal”.
Peskov added that the remark was “probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy. But honestly, I don’t think it’s possible”.
“Has Mr Putin ever used one crude word to address you? This has never happened. Therefore, I think that such a vocabulary debases America itself,” he said.
He later told a state television reporter: “This is a disgrace for the country itself, I mean the United States.”
Former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin ally, also slammed Biden’s comments and said the existential threat to the world came from “useless old geezers like Biden himself”.
Medvedev added that the US leader was “senile” and “ready to start a war with Russia”.
In an interview with Russian TV last week, Putin said he would rather Biden win the presidency in November than Donald Trump.
“He’s more experienced, he’s predictable, he’s an old-style politician,” Putin said.
Relations between Russia and the US have been strained in recent years because of the war in Ukraine and US claims that Moscow is planning to put a nuclear weapon in space.
In a speech in 2022 in Poland, Biden said Putin “cannot remain in power”. While the White House played down the remark, hardliners in Russia saw it as evidence that the US wanted to topple Putin.
Some Russian and US diplomats said they do not remember a time when relations between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers were worse, including during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
The death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in prison last week has intensified the divisions between the two countries. After news of his death, Biden said it was a “consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did”.
Navalny had previously accused Putin of trying to kill him, an allegation the Kremlin denied.
Russian officials have argued that Western countries have been quick to blame Putin for Navalny’s death without waiting for evidence. The Kremlin said their reaction is unacceptable and unjustified.
Washington is set to announce new sanctions against Russia over the death of Navalny and the two-year war in Ukraine on Friday.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the “major sanctions package” would hold Russia “accountable” for what happened to Navalny and respond to the “vicious and brutal war that has now raged on for two years”.
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