US president spares no insult while seeking regime change in Moscow

After calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal,” “a murderous dictator" and "a pure thug," US President Joe Biden further underscored that the US seeks regime change in Moscow on Saturday, describing the Russian leader as a "butcher" while meeting Ukrainian government officials and refugees in Warsaw.

Biden has repeatedly accused former President Donald Trump of not being tough with Putin and began demonizing the Russian leader soon after entering the White House on January 20, 2021, when he called him “a killer.”

Ratcheting up his policy of regime change in Moscow, Biden said Putin “cannot remain in power.”

“A dictator, bent on rebuilding an empire, will never erase the people’s love for liberty,” Biden said at the end of a sweeping speech in Poland. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.”

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said. 

Later on Saturday, a White House official attempted to clarify that Biden “was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change,” but rather was making the point that Putin “cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.”

“I'll be surprised if Biden finishes his first term above the dirt line,” said American journalist and political analyst Don DeBar. “Maybe with the proper meds and a few jolts of electricity he'd remember that he and his pal Barry O said the same thing about Syria's president - 11 years ago." 

“Biden's numbers are around 38% positive, getting close to Nixon's the day he was forced to resign. The US Congress is at about 20% positive. The US media is even less than that. Putin's have been more than 60% for most of the last past 20 years, and are around 65% now,” he pointed out.

DeBar said, “There are some numbers a US politician - one without memory or cognition issues - might want to contemplate before calling Russia's president ‘war criminal,’ ‘dictator,’ ‘thug’ and ‘butcher.’”

“For example, the civilian casualties in Iraq from March 20, 2003 (the day of ‘Shock and Awe’) until April 9 - twenty days in total - were 6,700 killed, an average of about 350 civilians per day. By contrast, the total number of civilians killed by all sides in Ukraine from February 24 until March 26 - thirty days - is 1104, about 35 per day, or one-tenth the number of civilians killed by the US invasion,” he added.

“For reference, Iraq's population (about 24 million in 2002) was slightly more than half of Ukraine's (about 42 million),” he said.

“Also, it should be remembered that last week marked the 19th year of the ongoing occupation of Iraq, which has taken a total of at least 200,000 civilians killed, millions wounded and more millions driven into subsistence. And this followed a decade of US sanctions that even the former US Secretary of State - before she received a well-earned, exceptionally warm welcome to the afterlife last week - admitted killed at least 500,000 children, which she called ‘worth it,” DeBar concluded.

Earlier this week, a top Greek diplomat said the US sanctions against Russia are aimed at regime change in Moscow. 

He told The Hill in an interview in Washington, DC, published on Tuesday that the coordinated Western sanctions against Russia over its military campaign in Ukraine are aimed at regime change in Moscow.

Greek Alternate Foreign Minister Varvitsiotis Miltiadis hailed Biden for goading countries to impose coordinated sanctions on Moscow, but lamented Turkey’s absence from the Western push to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Miltiadis was in Washington calling on policymakers there to pressurize Turkey to align with the West against Russia.

“If we don't drag [Turkey] into the sanction regime, then Russia will not feel as heavy [pressure from] the package of these sanctions that have already been imposed,” Miltiadis said.

White House: US, allies to impose more sanctions on Russia

The White House has said that the United States and its allies would impose more sanctions on Russia this week, as a top Greek diplomat said the sanctions are aimed at regime change in Moscow.   

Miltiadis emphasized that the sanctions are aimed at stoking the opposition in Russia.

“The sanctions ... are dedicated in order to bring down the Putin regime by internal unrest — and this is the idea that we create,” he said, “a climate into Russia that this act of aggression is going to be costly for the economy of Russia, and to build up the unrest and the opposition to Putin.”

The Biden administration has imposed harsh economic and banking sanctions on Russia in response to Russia's military actions in Ukraine.

Biden said the sanctions would limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen.

The US president claimed that the only other alternative to the sanctions would be to start a “Third World War.”

President Putin said earlier this month that Western sanctions on Russia were akin to a declaration of war.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk