Biden’s Putin "omission" Scramble to US efforts to rally United Front on Ukraine

President Biden has a decades-long reputation for unfortunate off-the-cuff comments

Washington:

President Joe Biden’s outspoken call for the exit of Vladimir Putin immediately echoed around the world, prompting the administration’s crowd-right — and risking US efforts to unite on a united front on the Ukraine conflict.

President Biden’s remarks that the Russian president “cannot stay in power” – delivered in Warsaw at the end of three days of marathon diplomacy – was dubbed “a sinister gaffe” by a Republican senator.

A senior US analyst said this could have the effect of prolonging the war.

And even the French president warned that such language could “exacerbate” a conflict that the United States and its NATO allies have sought to stop at all costs, and the suffering of Ukrainians Western efforts to help have been curtailed.

The remarks came as Biden delivered a loud speech on Saturday, a widely acclaimed European tour aimed at presenting a firm front against Russia’s invasion.

His ad-free words – “For God’s sake, this man can’t stay in power” – stunned even American advisers.

The White House immediately swung into action, making it clear within minutes that Biden was not advocating for a “regime change” in Russia. Asked by reporters on Sunday whether that was what he was demanding, the president replied: “No.”

But comments from President Biden – who had called Putin a “butcher” a few hours earlier – attracted projected fury from Moscow, raised eyebrows in allied countries and sent the president’s advisers into high gear to quell criticism.

-No ‘regime change’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken strongly denied in Jerusalem that Biden was calling for the removal of President Putin.

Blinken said President Biden’s point was that “Putin cannot be given the right to wage war, or to engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.”

Blinken said the election of Russia’s leader was “up to the Russians.”

The administration sent the US ambassador to NATO, Julian Smith, to underline the same message – saying on several TV networks that “the US has no regime change policy towards Russia, full stop.”

President Biden’s remarks, Smith told CNN’s “State of the Union”, were “a theoretical humanitarian response to the stories he had heard” during an emotional visit with Ukrainian refugees.

But French President Emmanuel Macron, a close US ally who has spoken frequently with Putin since the invasion, warned the West not to “increase in words or actions” – or risk obstructing vital humanitarian efforts. , including hopes of evacuating the devastated city. Mariupol.

As noted by a senior Republican lawmaker, Senator Jim Risk, the remarks so far went 180 degrees against the Biden administration’s continued efforts to prevent the conflict from escalating.

“There’s not much you can do going forward than call for regime change,” he told CNN.

reputation for gaffes

President Biden has a decades-long reputation for unfortunate off-the-cuff remarks — newspapers have previously listed his “Top 10 Gaffs of All Time” — and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking Republicans risk saying the president. Was shot again in the leg.

Biden “made a good speech,” Risk told CNN, “with a terrible gaffe at the end of it.”

“My god, I wish they had him on the script.”

Not everyone saw this comment, no matter how un-diplomatic, as an undeclared threat – or indeed as an omission.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markova, told NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “Anyone who is a war criminal, who attacks a neighboring country, who is committing all these atrocities… One cannot remain in power in a civilized world.”

And Michael McFall, the former US ambassador to Russia, said on Twitter that Biden’s words needed to be read more closely.

“Biden expressed what billions around the world and even millions of people inside Russia believe. He didn’t say the US should remove him from power. There is a difference.”

But many experts in the United States and abroad drew criticism.

Richard Haas, a US diplomat who heads the Council on Foreign Relations, said Biden had “made a difficult situation more difficult and a dangerous situation more dangerous.”

“Putin will see this as confirmation of what he has always believed,” Haas said on Twitter. “Bad lapse in discipline that risks increasing the scope and duration of war.”

Equally harsh, Francois Hesberg of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said it would be better not to “shoot with their mouths” to American leaders.

(This story has not been edited by UttarPradeshLive.Com staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)