JAKARTA - US President Joe Biden's comments on Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Europe last week had a long tail, after drawing a strong response from Moscow and a number of parties.
President Biden on Monday said his remarks that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not remain in power reflected his own moral outrage at Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not a change in US policy.
President Biden faced pressure to speak out about the comments after raising a flood of questions as to whether the United States had turned to a policy of seeking regime change in Moscow.
"I did not articulate a policy change then or now. I express the moral outrage I feel, and I do not apologize," he told reporters at the White House.
He said his outburst, made at the end of a keynote address on Ukraine in Warsaw on Saturday, was prompted by emotional visits he made to refugee camps and meeting with families displaced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
It is known that at the end of his speech in the Polish capital, Biden added an unscripted sentence, saying that Putin "cannot stay in power." Administration officials rushed to clarify afterwards that the White House was not advocating for regime change in Russia.
However, President Biden on Monday said he was "not walking back" by clarifying that statement. Asked if the statement would trigger a negative response from President Putin, Dian said, "I don't care what he thinks. He will do what he will."
However, President Biden has once again suggested that President Putin not lead Russia. If Putin "continues on his path, he will become a pariah around the world and who knows what he will become at home in terms of support," Biden said.
However, President Biden did not rule out a meeting with President Putin, saying "it depends" on what he wants to talk about.
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President Biden earlier this month described President Putin as a "war criminal" for his role in the conflict in which many Ukrainian civilians have been killed.
He said his remarks Saturday about Putin were aimed at a Russian audience.
"The last part of the speech was talking to the Russian people. I communicated this not only to the Russian people, but to the whole world. It just states the simple fact that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable," he said.
The Kremlin itself criticized President Biden's comments, judging that this should not have happened.
"A leader of a country must control his emotions," Kremlin spokesman Dmytry Peskov said of the latest remarks from the US president, quoted by TASS.
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