The United States has no strategy of regime change for Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Sunday after President Joe Biden a day earlier said Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power".
"I think the President, the White House made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else," Blinken said at a press conference during a visit to Jerusalem.
"As you know, and as you’ve heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter. In this case, as in any case, it’s up to the people of the country in question. It’s up to the Russian people," Blinken said.
In a major speech during his trip to Poland, Biden said that Putin "cannot remain in power", remarks a White House official said later were meant to prepare the world's democracies for extended conflict over Ukraine, not back regime change in Russia.
Those comments by Biden, including a statement earlier in the day calling Putin a "butcher," were a sharp escalation of the US approach to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
