US President Joe Biden's statement describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a killer was made carelessly and represents a manipulation on the part of the interviewer, former US Ambassador to Russia and Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said on Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2021) US President Joe Biden's statement describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a killer was made carelessly and represents a manipulation on the part of the interviewer, former US Ambassador to Russia and Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said on Friday.
Biden set off a diplomatic firestorm after answering in the affirmative when asked whether he considered Putin to be a killer during an interview with ABC news last month.
"I do think that the reference to Putin as a killer was a word, something that President Biden simply blurted out. And frankly the words were put in his mouth by the interviewer and he went with it," Biegun said during an event hosted by the Aspen Institute.
In hindsight, Biden's advisors would have encouraged him not to make such statements and the subsequent messaging has been an attempt at damage control, while attempting to "make a virtue out of misstatements," Biegun added.
The comments, as well as a myriad of US sanctions that followed, prompted Russia to recall Ambassador Anatoly Antonov to Moscow for consultations.
Earlier this month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik that Antonov will most likely not return to Washington in the near future and the solution to this issue depends on the willingness of the United States to show at least some desire to normalize relations with Russia.
