US President Biden calls Putin ‘crazy SOB’ and hits Trump on Navalny remarks

WASHINGTON – United States President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “crazy SOB” and criticised Donald Trump for likening himself to recently deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin, and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict,” Mr Biden said on Feb 21 at a San Francisco fund-raiser. 

Referring to the Republican front runner challenging his re-election bid, Mr Biden said he didn’t know “where the hell this comes from”, referring to Trump’s comparison of himself to Navalny.

“It astounds me the things that are being said,” Mr Biden said. “I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed.”

The Kremlin said on Feb 22 Mr Biden’s remark about Mr Putin debased the US and those who use such vocabulary, and was a poor attempt to appear like a “Hollywood cowboy”.

“The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “But it debases those who use such vocabulary.”

Mr Peskov said the remark was “probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy. But honestly I don’t think it’s possible”.

“Has Mr Putin ever used one crude word to address you? This has never happened. Therefore, I think that such vocabulary debases America itself,” he said.

He later added in comments to a state television reporter: “This is a disgrace for the country itself, I mean the United States.”

Mr Biden is on a three-day tour of the West Coast that has included fund-raisers in southern and northern California, events that will add to the US$130 million (S$175 million) that his campaign had amassed as at the end of January.

In a Fox News town hall on Feb 20, Trump compared his legal troubles to Navalny’s fate, calling the Russian opposition leader’s death a “very sad situation” and asserting that his four criminal indictments are politically motivated. 

The former US president stopped short of criticising Mr Putin in his remarks.

White House spokesman John Kirby on Feb 20 said there would be a “major sanctions package” against Russia to be announced on Feb 23, building on penalties against Mr Putin’s regime following

Navalny’s death

and as

the invasion of Ukraine

enters its third year.

Approval of further aid to Ukraine

for the war with Russia remains mired in partisan debates on Capitol Hill, with House lawmakers on recess this week. BLOOMBERG