US President Joe Biden’s speech in Poland about the Russian leadership has provoked a flurry of condemnation both at home and abroad, prompting the White House to issue what it described as a clarification.
Speaking in Poland on Saturday during a trip to Europe that involved crisis meetings focussed on the Ukraine conflict, Mr Biden had called Vladimir Putin a “butcher” and said: “For God’s sake this man cannot remain in power.”
Mr Biden was speaking just a few miles away from the borders of Ukraine, which Mr Putin’s forces have attacked for the past month. It came as the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, 400km away, was pounded by Russian missiles, potentially signalling a new front in Moscow’s invasion.
But asked on Sunday if he was calling for a leadership change in Russia, Mr Biden responded in the negative.
As he was leaving Holy Trinity Church in the Georgetown neighbourhood of Washington DC, a reporter asked him: “Mr President, do you want Putin removed? Mr President, were you calling for regime change?”
He simply said “no” before getting into his car.
Mr Biden’s off-the-cuff remark in Poland forced the White House to row back the president’s remarks, insisting that he “was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change”.
A White House spokesperson later said Mr Biden had meant only that “Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region”.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who was in Jerusalem on Sunday, said: “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.
“As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia – or anywhere else, for that matter,” he added.
Julianne Smith, the US permanent representative to Nato, told CNN that Mr Biden’s comments were “a principled human reaction to the stories that he had heard that day”. She underscored that the US “does not have a policy of regime change in Russia – full stop”.
But former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard hit out at the government, alleging that changing the regime was the Biden administration’s true intent, and warned of catastrophic consequences.
Mr Biden’s statement sparked fury from the Kremlin, which warned that such a “personal insult” could further undermine relations between the US and Russia.
“It’s not up to the president of the US and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
“A state leader should control his temper,” Mr Peskov told the state news agency Tass. “Personal insults like this narrow the window of opportunity for our bilateral relations under the current [US] administration. It is necessary to be aware of this.”
France’s president Emmanuel Macron on Sunday also warned Mr Biden against escalating tensions either by words or actions.
“I wouldn’t use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin,” Mr Macron, a close US ally, told France 3. “We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without escalation – that’s the objective.”
The British government also distanced itself from the US president’s comment. Asked if the UK government agreed with Joe Biden that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, Nadhim Zahawi said: “I think that’s up to the Russian people.”
Pressed further about the US president’s comments on regime change, the education secretary said: “It’s an illegal invasion of Ukraine and that must end, and I think that’s what the president was talking about.”
The cabinet minister said the Russian people “are pretty fed up with what is happening in Ukraine, this illegal invasion, the destruction of their own livelihoods, their economy is collapsing around them”, adding: “I think the Russian people will decide the fate of Putin and his cronies.”
But he declined to criticise Mr Biden, unlike Tobias Ellwood, the senior Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, who said Mr Putin will now “spin this, dig in and fight harder”.
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