Biden’s ‘slip’ saying Putin ‘cannot remain in power’ upsets US message

President Joe Biden’s clear call for Vladimir Putin’s exit immediately reverberated around the world, sending the administration scrambling to correct course — and risking a scramble for US efforts to muster a united front over the conflict in Ukraine.

Biden’s comment that the Russian president “cannot remain in power” – which he delivered in Warsaw at the conclusion of three marathon days of diplomacy – was described by a Republican senator as a “horrific gaffe”.

A senior US analyst said that could prolong the war.

Even the French president warned that such language could “escalate” a conflict that the United States and its NATO allies have sought at all costs to contain, and undermine Western efforts to help suffering Ukrainians.

The comments came as Biden finished a powerful speech on Saturday at the conclusion of a widely praised European visit aimed at forging a resolute front against the Russian invasion.

His troubling words—”For God’s sake, this man can’t stay in power”—stunned even American advisers, marking a stark departure from American policy so often advertised.

The White House immediately took action, making it clear within minutes that Biden was not advocating “regime change” in Russia.

But the comments by Biden – who had called Putin hours earlier a “butcher” – had prompted an expected wrath from Moscow, raised eyebrows in allied nations, and sent the president’s advisers on high alert to quell criticism.

No “regime change,” US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, joined in Jerusalem in denying that Biden was calling for Putin’s ouster.

Blinken said Biden’s view was that “Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.”

Blinken said the choice of the Russian leader “is up to the Russians.”

The administration sent the US ambassador to NATO, Julian Smith, to reiterate the same message – saying over several television networks that “the United States has no policy of regime change toward Russia, a dead end.”

Biden’s remarks, Smith told CNN’s “State of the Union,” were “a humane response initially to the stories he heard” during an emotional visit to Ukrainian refugees.

But French President Emmanuel Macron, a close US ally who has spoken frequently with Putin since the invasion, has warned the West not to “escalate in words or deeds” – or risk derailing vital humanitarian efforts, including hopes of evacuating the city of Mariupol.

As noted by the prominent Republican lawmaker, Senator Jim Risch, the remarks are 180 degrees at odds with the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts thus far to de-escalate the conflict.

“There’s not much you can do to escalate more than calling for regime change,” he told CNN.

reputation slips

Biden has a decades-old reputation for his unfortunate statements — newspapers have previously listed his “10 most important gaffes ever” — and Rich, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the president once again said he had shot himself.

Rich told CNN that Biden gave a “good speech,” with a “horrific gaffe at the end.”

“Oh my God, I wish they’d keep it on script.”

Not everyone saw the remark, however undiplomatic, as carrying an unspoken threat—or indeed a slip at all.

Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “Anyone who is a war criminal, who attacks a neighboring country, and does all these atrocities…certainly cannot remain in power in a civilized world.”

Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia, said on Twitter that Biden’s words needed to be read with nuance.

“Biden expressed what billions around the world believe, and millions inside Russia as well. He didn’t say the United States should remove him from power. There is a difference.”

But many experts in the United States and abroad weighed in on the criticism.

Richard Haass, the US diplomat who heads the Council on Foreign Relations, said Biden “made the difficult situation more difficult and the dangerous situation more dangerous.”

“Putin will see this as confirmation of what he has believed all along,” Haas said on Twitter. “A bad fall in discipline which may lead to an extension of the scope and duration of the war.”

Just as stern, François Heisbourg of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said it was best for US leaders not to “shoot themselves in the mouth.”

(AFP)