For a few minutes, the world changed.
In a speech in Poland on Saturday, US President Joe Biden apparently called for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to be ousted by any means, saying, “By God, this man cannot stay in power.”
The full-throated verbal attack on Putin appeared to represent a remarkable shift in American policy: regime change in Russia.
But almost as soon as breaking headlines and push notifications replicated the momentous event around the world, the White House began backing down on its comments.
“The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to wield power over his neighbors or the region,” a White House official told The Independent.
“He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
However, the attempted clean-up operation failed to reassure many observers.
“Too late. We all hear Biden say, ‘For God’s sake, this man can’t stay in power,'” Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin tweeted.
“The world heard it. There is no way to undo it.”
Author and international affairs expert Tom Nichols said he thought the comment had gone too far.
Regardless of intent, it showed that the United States was no longer interested in “meaningful relations with Russia” as long as Putin remained in power.
“No POTUS can meet with Putin again. The goal must be the goal of the Cold War: peaceful coexistence and averting disaster.”
CNN’s John Harwood called it a “significant failure in discipline” by Biden.
Tyler Pager of the Washington Post reported that Biden’s comments were unplanned and had taken his aides by surprise.
Biden’s comments prompted a swift response from Russia, as it sent an artillery strike into the western Ukrainian city of Lviv moments after the president finished speaking.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also responded to the speech, saying: “This is not for Mr. Biden to decide. It should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation.”
Earlier the same day, Biden called Putin a “butcher” for indiscriminate shelling of civilian targets in Ukraine while meeting with refugees near the Polish border.
He also called Putin a “war criminal” in response to a reporter’s question last week. The White House has also retracted those comments, while the State Department found the Russian president guilty of war crimes.
Biden calls Putin a butcher
President Joe Biden expressed his opinion about his Russian counterpart, whom he called a “butcher”. pic.twitter.com/Fdo0gwxJN6
— RT in Spanish (@ActualidadRT) March 26, 2022
