US President Joe Biden has been slammed for saying that Russian leader Vladimir Putin ‘cannot remain in power,’ with experts warning it will escalate tensions.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said in a speech from Poland on Saturday.
Shortly after his speech, an official from the White House downplayed his comments and said: “The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
Richard Haass, the Council on Foreign Relations president, took to Twitter to express his concerns and said that Biden had “just expanded US war aims, calling for regime change.”
“However desirable it may be, it is not within our power to accomplish-plus runs risk it will increase Putin’s inclination to see this as a fight to the finish, raising odds he will reject compromise, escalate, or both,” Haass wrote.
“Our interests are to end the war on terms Ukraine can accept & to discourage Russian escalation. Today’s call for regime change is inconsistent with these ends.”
Speaking to Politico, Haass said that a senior Biden official must reach out to a Russian counterpart as soon as possible to explain Biden’s remarks.
“The fact that it was so off-script in some ways makes it worse,” Haass said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov immediately denounced the US President, saying “it´s not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.”
Biden’s visit to Poland to meet Polish and Ukrainian officials comes more than a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead,” he said.
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