President Joe Biden clarified on Monday that his statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power” over the weekend does not reflect the change in the United States.
Biden spoke at the White House two days after he shook the ground with his close aides on Saturday when he made a statement at a major conference in Poland. This was followed by a series of headlines stating that Biden was calling for a change of government in Russia.
Despite the noise, Biden interrupted his first speech. “I’m not coming back,” he told reporters in a budget speech.
“I showed my anger” when I visited Ukrainian refugees.
“I wasn’t there then, and I’m not now, to say change,” Biden added.
Putin “should not stay in power because evil people should not continue to do evil,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean we have a special law to do anything to get rid of Putin in any way.”
Biden stressed that he was trying to speak directly to the Russian people and tell them that “such an approach is unacceptable and the way to deal with it is to strengthen and maintain a unified NATO.”
Biden’s remarks could help accelerate friction between European leaders, and many complain that Biden’s speech threatened to escalate the war between Putin and the West.
Biden had previously shot Putin during the crisis in Ukraine and called him a “deadly dictator” and a “war criminal.”
But by Saturday, the president had stopped demanding Putin’s resignation.
“A dictator whose goal is to rebuild the kingdom will never remove people’s love for freedom,” Biden said at the end of a clean speech in Poland. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia because free people refuse to live in a hopeless and gloomy world.”
“By God’s will, this man can’t stay in power,” Biden said.
As the value of Biden’s Sunday speech increased, the White House and vice president tried to return.
Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken argued that the U.S. government does not see a change of government in Russia and that Biden simply means that Putin cannot be allowed to continue the war in Europe.
“As you’ve heard from us many times, we have no plans to change the government in Russia – or any case,” Blinken told reporters during a visit to Israel.