Organizations urge Biden to halt 'reckless' rhetoric with Putin

US President Joe Biden should stop using “reckless” rhetoric with Russian President Vladimir Putin and instead conduct “constructive bilateral talks” with him, 27 organizations said in a statement on Tuesday.

Justice Democrats, Blue America, Demand Progress, Our Revolution and Progressive Democrats of America, all of which are left-leaning organizations, are among the organizations that signed on to the statement obtained by the Hill.

The organizations expressed concern about “the recent negative exchanges between” Biden and Putin given the fact that the US and Russia possess “90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads in their arsenals.”

They urged Biden to “make good on his stated commitment” from February that “diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.”

“As national organizations that advocate for diplomacy, arms control, disarmament and peace, we are deeply alarmed by the recent negative exchanges between leaders of the two countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads in their arsenals,” read the statement.

“As Americans, we urge the Biden administration to stop participating in such reckless rhetorical exchanges and to instead vigorously pursue nuclear-arms negotiations with the Russian government.”

The group also encouraged Biden to hold “constructive bilateral talks to address the clear and present dangers of the nuclear arms race has never been more apparent.”

In an interview with ABC earlier this month, Biden was asked whether he thought the Russian president was a “killer”, to which he responded “I do”, and threatened some form of retaliation about Kremlin’s alleged interference in US affairs.

“The price he’s going to pay, you’ll see shortly,” the Democratic president said.

In response, Russian officials called the comment “unacceptable,” and asked for an apology from the US. Russia also recalled its ambassador to the US for consultations on the future of Moscow-Washington relations.

In the statement, Alan Minsky, the executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, said, “The grassroots progressive base of the Democratic Party has zero interest in a bellicose foreign policy towards Putin or Russia.”

He added that “a safer world with international cooperation” is what people want, noting, “We have no patience for Cold War saber-rattling, let alone nuclear brinkmanship.”

Tensions have been running high between the two countries in recent months, especially after a declassified report on Russia’s alleged attempts to interfere in the 2020 US election, and the alleged poisoning of currently jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny. Moscow has refuted both claims as baseless.

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