Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday accused President Joe Biden of disrespecting Russian President Vladimir Putin in his “big boy” press conference after Thursday’s NATO summit and said the whole world was judging Biden based on his gaffes at the presser.
The Kremlin was particularly irked by Biden misidentifying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Vladimir Putin and referring to Putin as a “murderous madman.”
“We noticed that the whole world paid attention to what happened, and there can be no comment here, but it is clear that these were slips of the tongue,” Peskov said at his press briefing on Friday.
“It is understandable that they probably received such a wide resonance given the context of the internal political discussions that we are now witnessing in the U.S., but it’s not our topic, it’s an internal U.S. topic,” Peskov said, making two backhanded comments about Biden’s deteriorating condition in as many sentences.
“We continue to consider it absolutely unacceptable and impermissible behavior for a head of state to make such disrespectful remarks about other heads of state. I am referring to his remarks about President Putin,” Peskov said.
“This is unacceptable to us, and we don’t think it in any way makes an American head of state look good. This is something that we pay direct attention to and something that is absolutely unacceptable to us,” he said.
State television channel Russia24 described Biden confusing Zelensky with Putin as an “embarrassment” that shows “just what state he is in at the moment.”
Russia’s state-run Tass news service peevishly noted on Friday that Biden mentioned Putin 20 times during his press conference, plus 16, 20, and 23 mentions of China, Russia, and Ukraine, respectively. This might have been because China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a major topic of discussion at the summit, but Tass did not choose to explore that possibility.
The state-run Sputnik News said Biden’s presser was filled with “cringe, cringe, and more cringe” as NATO leaders and Biden’s own cabinet “sheepishly nod and smile at Biden’s blunders.”
“Zelensky, embarrassed, stands in bewilderment as Biden ‘replaces’ him with Putin as president of Ukraine, while Scholz forces a smile at the comment. Meanwhile, Blinken sits unblinkingly shocked at Biden saying he picked Trump as vice president. See the look on their faces as Biden’s cringeworthy gaffes make him a laughingstock,” Sputnik wrote gleefully.