Russian President Vladimir Putin responded with a joke when asked by the press for reaction to recent jabs from President Biden.
The U.S. president made national headlines this week when he called Putin a “crazy SOB” during a speech about climate change at a fundraising dinner in California.
“This is the last existential threat, it is climate. We have a crazy SOB that guy, Putin others. And we always have to be worried about a nuclear conflict,” Biden said. “But the existential threat to humanity is climate.”
PUTIN CLAIMS HE PREFERS ‘MORE PREDICTABLE’ BIDEN OVER TRUMP
Asked for comment on Thursday regarding Biden’s “SOB” comment, Putin referred to a previous endorsement he gave of Biden over rival and former President Donald Trump.
“He can’t of course say to me: ‘Volodya, well done, thank you [for the endorsement], you’ve helped me a lot?'” Putin said sarcastically, according to a translation from Agence France-Presse.
“Volodya” is an endeared, familiar version of the Russia president’s name, “Vladimir” — similar in American English to “Bobby” for “Robert.”
BIDEN CALLS PUTIN A ‘CRAZY SOB’ AT CALIFORNIA FUNDRAISER
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also responded Thursday by saying that Biden’s comment was “probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy,” according to Reuters.
Putin recently said in an interview on state television that he would prefer the “more predictable” Biden winning the upcoming U.S. presidential election compared to Trump.
Putin made the remark after being asked by an interviewer about who between Biden and the Republican frontrunner for the nomination would be a better choice from Russia’s point of view.
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“Biden, he’s more experienced, more predictable, he’s a politician of the old formation,” Putin responded. “But we will work with any U.S. leader whom the American people trust.”
Putin also commented on Biden’s mental state following the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report last week, calling him a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
“When I met with Biden in Switzerland — true, that was several years, three years ago — people were already saying he wasn’t up to it. I didn’t see anything of the kind,” Putin said, according to Reuters.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.