President Joe Biden of the United States, has insisted that he never issued an apology or retracted his “Putin cannot not remain in power” remarks, after wide spread condemnation especially from his Western counterparts about the Russian leader.
The statement by the United States President, is coming a few hours after the White House assured that President Joe Biden had not pleaded for a change of regime in Russia, after the remarks were deemed “alarming” by the Kremlin.
According to reports, President Joe Biden said on Monday he was not retracting his controversial remarks suggesting he wanted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin out of power because they expressed personal ‘outrage’ and not a ‘policy’ for a change of diet.
“I do not withdraw them” and “I do not apologize”, said the American president in front of the press. “I was just expressing my outrage that he shouldn’t stay in power, the same way the bad guys shouldn’t keep doing bad things”, “but that doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy change”, he added.
“This man’s actions are just brutality”
He spoke of his “moral outrage over the way Putin is acting”. “This man’s actions are just brutality,” he insisted, but “nobody believes” that “I was talking about overthrowing Putin”.
President Joe Biden had on Saturday in Warsaw, while referring to Putin, stated: “For the love of God, this man cannot stay in power!”
This little phrase, which did not appear in the written text of the speech, compelled the White House to immediately try to downplay its significance to ensure that it was not suggesting an overthrow of the master of the Kremlin.
Several experts and leaders of countries allied with the United States considered that this declaration went against the efforts of the West not to justify a Russian escalation in the war led by Moscow in Ukraine.
Joe Biden replied that he did not think “at all” that his remarks could cause such an escalation.
Asked what the Russian president might think, he replied: “I don’t care what he thinks”. “He’s going to do what he thinks he has to do, period. He’s not influenced by anyone.”
However, the American president has not ruled out a future summit with his Russian counterpart. “It depends on what he wants to talk about!” he said.
On Monday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres responded to Biden’s speech by saying that “we need de-escalation. We need military de-escalation and rhetoric de-escalation.”
Although Biden has frequently touted American unity with European allies since the invasion of Ukraine began, he appears to have caused some discomfort by targeting Putin in Warsaw.
French President Emanuel Macron said Sunday he “wouldn’t use those terms, because I continue to speak to President Putin, because what do we want to do collectively? We want to stop the war that Russia launched in Ukraine, without waging war and without escalation.”