Russian president Vladimir Putin will not congratulate Joe Biden on Monday’s US Independence Day because of Washington’s “unfriendly” actions towards Moscow, the Kremlin has said.
“Congratulations this year can hardly be considered appropriate,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “The United States’ unfriendly policies are the reason.”
It comes as the US president blamed Russia for spiking gas prices as well as the global food shortage at Nato’s Madrid summit last week.
“The bottom line is ultimately the reason why gas prices are up is because of Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia. The reason why the food crisis exists is because of Russia,” he said.
Mr Biden also said that Nato would “stick with Ukraine”.
“Ukraine has already dealt a severe blow to Russia – Russia in fact has already lost its international standing. Russia is in a position where the whole world is looking and saying, ‘wait a minute, all this effort to try to take the whole country – you tried to take Kyiv, you lost, you tried to take the Donbas and all of it, you haven’t done that yet,’” Mr Biden said.
He added that he warned Putin that if he invaded Ukraine, “Nato would not only get stronger but would get more united.
“And we would see democracies in the world stand up and oppose his aggression and defend the rules-based order. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing today.”
Independence Day is an annual national holiday in the United States. It commemorates the country’s Declaration of Independence from British rule, which was ratified on 4 July, 1776.
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