President Joe Biden has been ridiculed by the Kremlin after saying he knew Russian President Vladimir Putin "for over 40 years," despite Putin serving as an undercover KGB agent during the 1980s.
Biden officially had his first in-person meeting with Putin while serving as vice president in 2011. A second meeting occurred in the early months of Biden's presidency, when the two leaders met at a summit held in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 2021.
Biden claimed to have had a much longer relationship with the Russian president during a Thursday interview with ABC's David Muir. When asked if he was "concerned" about Putin's nuclear threats amid the Ukraine war, Biden called Putin a "dictator" that had "concerned" him for decades.
"I've known him for over 40 years," Biden said. "He's concerned me for 40 years. He's not a decent man. He's a dictator and he's struggling to make sure he holds his country together while still keeping this assault [on Ukraine] going."
Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary, responded to Biden's remarks by saying that the Kremlin "will not react" to insults, referring to the "dictator" remark, during an event in St. Petersburg on Friday, according to Russian-state media outlet RT.
Peskov then said "one can only wonder" what Biden meant when he claimed to know Putin for more than four decades. Given "what Putin was doing" at the time, he hinted that Biden would have been secretly meeting with a KGB agent if the president's words were accurate.
"One can make very deep analytical conclusions about how Biden could have become acquainted with him [at that time]," Peskov said, reportedly drawing laughter from reporters.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the White House via email on Friday.
During the ABC interview, Muir pointed out that Putin had called Biden's decision to allow Ukraine the use of U.S.-supplied weapons for strikes inside Russia "direct participation in this war" and could lead to "serious problems."
The State Department confirmed last week that Biden had given Kyiv limited approval to use American weapons for "counter-fire purposes" near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, in response to a Russian offensive that began on May 10.
During a meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Putin issued a nuclear threat against the U.S. and its Western allies, saying that they should not assume Russia "will never use" its nuclear arsenal.
"For some reason, the West believes that Russia will never use it ... We have a nuclear doctrine, look what it says," Putin said, referring to Russia's policy of allowing nuclear weapon usage if "the very existence of the state is put under threat."
"If someone's actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible for us to use all means at our disposal," he added. "This should not be taken lightly, superficially."
Russian-state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Friday that Putin had delivered a speech in which he referred to Russia's nuclear doctrine as "a living instrument," with the possibility of "making some changes to this doctrine."
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Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
