The president of the United States, Joe Biden, refused this Monday to retract having said that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “cannot remain in power”, because he claims he was expressing “personal outrage” and not “a policy” in favor of regime change.
“I do not take it back at all … I want to make it clear that I was neither then nor now articulating a policy change. I was expressing the moral outrage I feel, I do not apologize for my personal feelings,” he told reporters at the White House.
Several leaders and independent analysts considered that the comment made by Biden in Warsaw at the end of a three-day diplomatic tour, was a blunder.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot stay in power!” he had claimed.
Biden said he is not concerned about escalating tensions with Putin following the remarks. “He was speaking to the Russian people, telling them what we thought.” “I don’t care what he thinks,” he added.
“This is a freelance guy and the idea that he’s going to do something heinous that I called him out for…is not rational.”
The Ukrainian government claims that as many as 10,000 people may have been killed since the start of Putin’s invasion more than a month ago.
Russian attacks near kyiv have cut power to more than 80,000 homesdespite Moscow apparently saying it was shifting its war goals to focus on eastern Ukraine.
But Biden left the door open, saying a meeting with Putin would depend “on what he wants to talk about,” about “if there is anything to meet about … that can end this war and rebuild Ukraine.”
