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U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday (March 26) that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not stay in power and that Putin’s war on Ukraine was a strategic failure for Moscow.
“For God’s sake, this guy can’t stay in power,” Biden said in Warsaw, Poland, Reuters reported.
Biden also said the Russia-Ukraine war, entering its second month, has united the West. He said NATO was a defensive alliance that never wanted Russia to perish.
Reuters quoted a person in the White House to clarify that Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power” and was not calling for regime change in Russia.
“The president means that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He is not discussing power or regime change in Russia,” the official said after Biden’s speech in Washington.
Biden’s remarks drew strong criticism from veteran U.S. diplomat Richard Haass.
Haas, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, tweeted that the remarks “made difficult situations more difficult and dangerous situations more dangerous.”
Russia responds
The Kremlin on the same day dismissed Biden’s remarks, saying the Russians elected their own president.
Asked about Biden’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: “This is not something that Biden can decide. The president of Russia is elected by the Russians.”
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Peskov did not respond further to the White House clarification.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine last month, Biden has stepped up his personal attacks on Putin, and the Kremlin has questioned the U.S. leader’s state of mind.
Last week, Russia accused Biden of “personally insulting” Putin after he called Putin a “war criminal” and a “murderous dictator” and said Biden’s remarks appeared to be motivated by anger, fatigue and forgetfulness .
Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin sarcastically said on social media that the clarification of Biden’s latest remarks came from the White House medical department.
Analysis by BBC North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher
“For God’s sake, this guy can’t stay in power,” U.S. President Joe Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a speech in the Polish capital Warsaw on Saturday.
The White House was quick to say that Biden was not calling for regime change, but was emphasizing that Putin could not exercise power over his neighbors.
This is an apparent attempt to turn things around, and there are fears that it will put more pressure on Putin and make him more uneasy.
Because Putin is the leader of a country that is struggling militarily and also controls a nuclear arsenal, the concern on the U.S. side is that they don’t want to corner Putin. Direct calls for regime change can lead to instability and increase unpredictability.
In this case, the last thing you want is unpredictability.
Poland responds
“The president of the most powerful country in the world came to Warsaw and spoke very frankly about Russian aggression,” Polish foreign ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina told the BBC.
“Biden told the Russians that there is always a chance to change a dictator. It was a very moving and profound experience.”
Ukraine-Russia situation: A look back at the past month of war
“Putin cannot be brought back into our global community, we cannot listen to him, he is not our trusted partner,” Jasina said.
Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine, played a major role in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, hosting more than 2 million refugees.