Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Thursday (Feb 22) sarcastically responded to his American counterpart Joe Biden calling him a “crazy SOB,” earlier this week. The Russian president also said that he still prefers Biden over former United States President Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
‘He wasn’t going to say thank you’
“We are ready to work with any president. But I believe that for us, Biden is a more preferable president for Russia, and judging by what he has just said, I am absolutely right,” Putin said in an interview with pro-Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin with a slight smile.
The Russian president in a seemingly sarcastic tone went on to say that it’s not like Biden was going to thank him for the endorsement. “It’s not like he can say to me, ‘Volodya, thank you, well done, you’ve helped me a lot,’” said Putin.
He added, “You asked me which is better for us. I said it then that, and I still think I can repeat it: Biden.”
WATCH | Inside Putin’s Russia
Last week, the Russian president told Zarubin in a separate interview when questioned about the upcoming US presidential election, that Biden would be better for Russia “because he is a more experienced person, he is predictable, he is a politician of an old formation”.
However, he said that Russia would “work with any leader of the US who gains the trust of the American people”.
Biden’s ‘crazy SOB’ remark
Biden, on Wednesday (Feb 21) called Putin a “crazy SOB” while addressing a public fundraising event in the US state of California.
“We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin, and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate,” the US president said in a brief speech at the event in San Francisco.
Kremlin responds to Biden’s remark
Earlier on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters that the use of such language only “debases” the US.
“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,” said Peskov, adding that it “debases those who use such vocabulary.”
The remark was “probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy. But honestly I don’t think it’s possible,” the Kremlin spokesperson told Reuters.
(With inputs from agencies)
