Vladimir Putin (left) and Joe Biden.Photo: Mikhail KlimentyevTASS via Getty; Chip Somodevilla/Getty
PresidentJoe Bidenis promising that Russia’s leader,Vladimir Putin, will “pay a price” for his interference in the U.S. election — sayingin an interview with ABC Newsthat aired Wednesday that be believes Putin is a “killer”
“He had a long talk, he and I,” Biden told George Stephanopoulos. “I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off — I said, ‘I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.’ "
“I wasn’t being a wise guy. I was alone with him in his office, that’s how it came about,” Biden continued. “It was when President Bush had said, ‘I’ve looked in his eyes andsaw his soul.’ I said, ‘I looked in your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.’ He looked back and he said, ‘We understand each other.’ "
His decades in politics, Biden said, taught him that the most important thing in dealing with foreign leaders is “know the other guy.”
“So you know Vladimir Putin — do you think he’s a killer?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Mmmhmm, I do … The price he’s gonna pay, well, you’ll see shortly,” Biden said, adding that there are areas in which the two countries should work together, “in the interest of humanity,” such as the recentextensionof a nuclear arms control pact.
Russian officials, including Putin, quickly umbrage at the remark. According toThe Washington Post, the Russian president responded somewhat mockingly, invoking an expression that translates to “I know you are, but what am I?”
Putin, who has as penchant for strongman theatrics,also challengedBiden to a debate. (Biden declined.)
Tensions between the U.S. and Russia have frayed in recent years after the American intelligence community denounced what it called a Russian campaign to interfere in U.S. elections and sow division and discord, largely online.
There were also more recent — and disputed — reports that Russia had offered bounties for the killings of U.S. service-members in the Middle East.
Putin’s government has roundly rejected any wrongdoing and Putin has cast himself as the defender of a country in the shadow of NATO and the U.S.-led international order.
The report found that the Russian presidentauthorized an influence campaignaimed at supporting former PresidentDonald Trumpand undermining public confidence in the election.
“There’s no suggestion from the report that Giuliani or other Americans were wittingly aiding a Russian interference effort,“The Washington Postreported, instead describing that the official assessment was of a blind eagerness for assistance.
A spokesperson for the Kremlin told thePostthat Russia “did not interfere in the previous election and did not interfere in the election mentioned in this report in 2020. Russia has no relation to any campaigns against any candidates.”
On his first full day in office, Biden directed Haines to conduct a full review of several recent Russian controversies, including interference in the election, reported bounties placed on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Though it was released this week, the declassified intelligence report was based on intelligence work undertaken during the Trump administration.
source: people.com
