Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday mocked his US counterpart Joe Biden, escalating a war of words between the two world leaders.
Putin said \u201cit takes one to know one\u201d after Biden, a day earlier, said he thought the Russian leader was a \u201ckiller\u201d.
Biden made the comment in an ABC News interview broadcast on Wednesday. When asked if he thought the Russian leader, who has been accused of ordering the poisoning of Alexey Navalny and other rivals, is a \u201ckiller\u201d, Biden replied: \u201cI do.\u201d
Biden also described Putin as having no soul, and said he would pay a price for alleged Russian meddling in the November 2020 US presidential election, something the Kremlin denies.
Putin on Thursday retorted: \u201cI remember, in my childhood, when we argued in the courtyard, we used to say: \u2018It takes one to know one.\u2019 And that\u2019s not a coincidence, not just a children\u2019s saying or joke.
\u201cWe always see our own traits in other people and think they are like how we really are. And, as a result, we assess [a person\u2019s] activities and give assessments.
\u201cAs he [Biden] said, we know each other personally. What would I reply to him? I would say: I wish you health. I wish you health. I say that without any irony or joke.\u201d
In a highly unusual move following Biden\u2019s interview, Russia said it was recalling its ambassador to the United States for urgent consultations over the future of US-Russia ties.
The Russian embassy in Washington, DC said in a statement that Anatoly Antonov will leave the US on Saturday.
It added that \u201ccertain ill-considered statements of high-ranking US officials have put the already excessively confrontational relations under the threat of collapse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian legislators urge \u2018tough\u2019 response US tightens sanctions over Navalny Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday mocked his US counterpart Joe Biden…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong>Shortly before Putin spoke on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Biden\u2019s remarks showed he had no interest in fixing ties with Moscow.
\u201cThese are really bad remarks by the US president. He has clearly shown that he doesn\u2019t want to improve relations with our country,\u201d Peskov said. \u201cWe will now proceed from that.\u201d
Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament\u2019s upper house, said Biden\u2019s remarks would inflame already bad ties, and ended any hope in Moscow of a change in US policy.
Kosachyov added that recalling ambassador Antonov was a reasonable step.
\u201cI suspect it will not be the last one if no explanation or apology follows from the American side,\u201d he said in a Facebook post.
Artur Chilingarov, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker in the lower house of parliament, called for a \u201ctough reaction\u201d from Moscow, in comments made to Russia\u2019s Ekho Moskvy radio station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Moscow\u2019s ties with the West, already languishing at post-Cold War lows since 2014, have come under new pressure in recent months over Navalny, who is jailed in Russia.
Western powers, including the US, have demanded Navalny is freed. Russia has dismissed those calls as unacceptable interference in its domestic affairs.
On Wednesday, the US Commerce Department tightened sanctions on some exports to Russia as punishment for Navalny\u2019s alleged poisoning in August of last year.
The department said the move would toughen restrictions originally put in place in response to the March 2018 poisoning of former Russian military officer intelligence Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, with a military-grade nerve agent.
Moscow has denied any role in either case.
The US is thought to be readying further sanctions against Russia over the alleged hacking and meddling in the 2020 election.
\u201cYou\u2019ll see shortly,\u201d Biden told ABC, when asked what consequences Russia would face.
Russia\u2019s foreign ministry said Moscow expected an explanation for Biden\u2019s remarks, the Interfax news agency reported.
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