LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) – The Kremlin dismissed a remark by U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” saying it was up to Russians to choose their own president.
Asked about Biden’s comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”
A White House official said Biden, who was speaking in Warsaw, had not been calling for “regime change” in Russia but his point was that “Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region”.
Peskov did not immediately respond to a follow-up request for reaction to the White House clarification.
Biden has stepped up personal attacks on Putin since the Russian president ordered the invasion of Ukraine last month, and the Kremlin has replied by questioning the U.S. leader’s state of mind.
Last week it accused Biden of making “personal insults” towards Putin after he labelled him a “war criminal” and a “murderous dictator”, and said his remarks appeared to have been fuelled by irritation, fatigue and forgetfulness.
Dmitry Rogozin, the outspoken head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, suggested mockingly on social media that the clarification of Biden’s latest remarks had come from the White House medical unit.
Rogozin has previously derided what he called “Alzheimer’s sanctions” imposed on Russia by the United States over the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation.
Biden says Putin ‘cannot remain in power’ in fiery speech on Ukraine war
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday that Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” in a fiery speech pushing the world’s democracies to unite to support Ukraine, though the White House later said Biden was not calling for regime change in Moscow.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden told a crowd in Warsaw after condemning Putin’s month-long war in Ukraine as an assault on global freedom and security.
The comments sharply escalated conflict between Moscow and the West over its invasion of Ukraine.
But a White House official said the remarks did not represent a shift in Washington’s policy that it is not seeking regime change in Russia.
Still, they came on a day of escalating rhetoric as Biden also described branded Putin a “butcher” during a meeting with refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine to the Polish capital.
“The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region,” the White House official said. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
On Saturday, Biden said the West was united against Russia’s invasion but also added that NATO was a defensive security alliance which never sought Russia’s demise.
Biden’s speech was delivered at Warsaw’s Royal Castle before hundreds of Polish elected officials, students and U.S. embassy staff, many holding U.S., Polish and Ukrainian flags.
“The West is now stronger, more united than it has ever been,” Biden said.
Calling the fight against Vladimir Putin a “new battle for freedom,” Biden said Putin’s desire for “absolute power” was a strategic failure for Russia and a direct challenge to a European peace that has largely prevailed since World War Two.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Karol Badohal in Warsaw and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets in Lviv, Nandita Bose in Washington, Humeyra Pamuk, Alan Charlish, Justyna Pawlak and Joanna Plucinska in Warsaw and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Heather Timmons, Grant McCool, Frances Kerry, Timothy Heritage, Andrea Ricci and Nick Zieminski)
Additional Reporting by Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Timothy Heritage
