Senior Lawmaker Says Biden Owes Russia An Apology Over Putin Killer Comment

A senior Russian lawmaker and Kremlin ally says U.S. President Joe Biden owes the country an apology after saying he believes President Vladimir Putin is a killer.

Already tense relations between Moscow and Washington were strained further when Biden made the comment in an interview broadcast on ABC television in the United States on March 17.

Asked if he thought Putin was a killer, Biden told ABC: “Mmm hmm, I do.”

Biden, who has spent more than four decades in politics, also said he had come to know Putin “relatively well” over the years and that he doesn’t believe Putin has a soul. He also sent a warning that Putin will soon “pay a price” for trying to interfere in November’s presidential election.

Within hours of the comments, Russia summoned its ambassador to the United States back to Moscow for consultations.

“This is a watershed moment. This gross statement sends any expectations from the new U.S. administration’s new policy toward Russia down the drain,” Konstantin Kosachyov, the deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s upper house, wrote in a Facebook post on March 18.

“Recalling the Russian ambassador from Washington to Moscow for consultations is a prompt and adequate reaction, the only right one in this situation. I suspect that it will not be the last [step] if the American side does not offer its explanation and apology,” he added.

The Biden interview came on the heels of a report by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence that concluded that Putin had “authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President [Donald] Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States.”

The Kremlin immediately denied the findings of the report, saying they were “absolutely unfounded.” However, it has yet to speak directly to Biden’s comments in the interview.

Washington’s relations with Moscow are at post-Cold War lows, strained by issues including Russia’s alleged meddling in elections in the United States and other democracies, the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, cyberattacks from Russian hackers, and the poisoning and jailing of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.

Despite strained relations, Biden noted that it was possible to “walk and chew gum at the same time for places where it’s in our mutual interest to work together.”

Russia has dismissed U.S. comments on Navalny and Ukraine as unacceptable interference in its domestic affairs.

With reporting by Interfax, Reuters, and TASS