it: REUTERS
U.S. President Joe Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “crazy SOB” at a public fundraising event Wednesday, which the Kremlin decried as “shameful”.
The 81-year-old leader has regularly had harsh words for Mr. Putin since Moscow’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine two years ago, including calling him a “butcher” and a “war criminal.”
And on Wednesday he was no less direct.
“We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin, and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate,” Mr. Biden said in a brief speech at the event in San Francisco attended by a small group of reporters.
Mr. Biden has said the United States will announce a package of tough new sanctions Friday against Russia over the death in prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr. Biden’s invective was “a huge shame for the country itself… for the U.S.”
“If a President uses that kind of language, it’s shameful,” he said.
“It is clear that Mr. Biden is demonstrating Hollywood cowboy-style behavior to serve domestic political interests,” he continued.
In an interview with ABC News in March 2021, Mr. Biden was asked if he thought Mr. Putin was “a killer”. He replied: “I do.”
