‘Murderous’: Kremlin says Harris’ remarks on Putin expose how US seeks to impose views on world
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comment was the latest jab in exchanges revolving around the US presidential election and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MOSCOW – The Kremlin said on Oct 12 that US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ description of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “murderous dictator” exposed how politicians in Washington sought to impose their views on the world.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comment was the latest jab in exchanges revolving around the US presidential election and Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has lasted for more than 2½ years .
“The lofty political establishment of the United States of America, to all appearances, is infused with such a political culture,” Russian news agencies quoted Mr Peskov as telling a television interviewer.
“This is probably the quintessence of the very model of international relations that they are trying to foist on the entire world, a model that most in the world are beginning to like less and less.”
His comment appeared to be in response to US Vice-President Harris’ criticism of a report in a newly released book by US journalist Bob Woodward that former US president Donald Trump, while in office, had sent Covid-19 tests to Russia at the height of the pandemic. In a radio interview, she described Mr Putin as a “murderous dictator”.
With relations between Russia and the United States plunging to depths not seen since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, each side has told the other to stop discussing domestic issues.
The United States told Mr Putin to stop commenting on the US election back in February and again in September when the Kremlin leader suggested he favoured Ms Harris over Republican candidate Trump in the upcoming election because of her “infectious laugh”.
That exchange prompted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to say that Mr Putin “often jokes” in his public statements.
According to summaries of Mr Woodward’s book by The Washington Post and The New York Times, US President Joe Biden was privately scathing about several foreign leaders, including Mr Putin, whom he described as the “epitome of evil”. REUTERS
