President Biden continued to needle his Russian counterpart on Friday, not ruling out Vladimir Putin’s challenge to a debate and promising to slap new sanctions on Moscow.
The new U.S. leader told reporters that new economic penalties for a list of Russian actions “will come in time,” capping a tense week during which he and Putin traded barbs and the Kremlin recalled its ambassador to Washington. Collectively, those actions were part of a continued souring of relations between the longtime rivals.
“I’m sure we’ll talk at some point,” Biden said when asked about Putin’s latest verbal jab: a one-on-one televised “discussion.”
“I’ve just thought of this now,” the Russian leader told an interviewer from a state media outlet. “I want to propose to President Biden to continue our discussion, but on the condition that we do it, basically live, as it’s called.”
“Without any delays and directly in an open, direct discussion,” Putin said. “It seems to me that would be interesting for the people of Russia and for the people of the United States.”
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Biden has taken a tougher rhetorical stance against Russia than his predecessor, Donald Trump, who refused to say many critical things about the Russian president.
That prompted four years of allegations from top Democrats, and some Republicans Trump sent to political exile, that Trump was somehow beholden to Putin — though they never proved those claims.
Specifically, Biden this week appeared to get under Putin’s skin when he called him a “killer.”
The American commander in chief was asked by an interview if he considers Putin, who has targeted and allegedly poisoned opposition figures, journalists, and others on his own soil and abroad, a “killer.”
“Mmm hmm, I do,” Biden replied, adding his Russian counterpart is “going to pay” for his country’s interference in the 2020 election.
That assessment prompted Putin to deliver his own view of America, essentially accusing Biden and other U.S. leaders of also being murderers.
“When I was a child, when we argued in the courtyard, we said the following: ‘If you call someone names, that’s really your name,’” Putin told the state media reporter.
“When we characterize other people, or even when we characterize other states, other people,” he added, “it is always as though we are looking in the mirror.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday downplayed the worsening U.S.-Russia relations, saying the Biden administration is “confident that we can continue to look for ways where there’s … mutual national interest.”
“But the president is not going to hold back, clearly, when he has concerns, when he has, whether it is with words or actions,” she said of Biden.
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“President Biden and President Putin certainly have different perspectives on their respective countries and how to approach engagement in the world,” Psaki said. “But where they agree is that we should continue to work for way, look for ways to work together, as was noted in part of President Putin’s comments. … And there are areas of mutual interest.”
She pointed to a recent nuclear arms-reduction treaty and both countries’ involvement in trying to get Iran back to the negotiating table about its nuclear program.
