Russia's president Vladimir Putin responded to President Joe Biden's comment in an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos where he described the leader as a killer.
In an interview that aired on "Good Morning America" this week, Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he thinks Putin is a “killer,” and the president answered: “I do.”
Putin was asked about Biden’s comment during a video call marking the anniversary of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and he responded with an “it-takes-one-to-know-one”-style remark, saying his counterpart’s words reflected the United States’ own problems. At the same time, he offered to have a phone call with Biden to discuss issues of mutual interest.
Putin pointed at the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan during World War II, as well as its history of slavery, and slaughtering Native Americans, noting the painful legacies weighing on the United States.
“Otherwise, where would the Black Lives Matter movement come from?” he said, citing racial injustice and the killing of African Americans.
Biden’s administration warned that Russia would face sanctions soon over its attempt to influence last year’s U.S. election and the massive Solar Wind hacks.
The spiraling tensions have brought U.S.-Russian relations to the point where they were at the end of President Barack Obama’s administration, a chilly strain that differed markedly from Trump’s efforts to court Putin.
Asked what he would tell Biden in response to his remarks, Putin said: “I would tell him: ‘Be well.’ I wish him health, and I say that without any irony or joking.”
Recalling his youth, Putin said that he and his friends would respond to insults with the taunt: “The names you call are what you are yourself” — a Russian version of the childhood riposte, “I’m rubber, you’re glue; what you say bounces off me and sticks to you.”
“It’s not just a rhymed childish joke; it has a deep psychological meaning: We see our own qualities in another person, we think he’s like us and judge him accordingly,” he added.
He noted that Russia would still cooperate with the United States where and when it supports Moscow’s interests, adding that “a lot of honest and decent people in the U.S want to have peace and friendship with Russia.”
“I know that the U.S. and its leadership is generally inclined to have certain relations with us, but only on issues which are of interest to the U.S. and on its conditions,” Putin said. “But we know how to defend our own interests, and we will work with them only in the areas we are interested in and on conditions we see as beneficial to ourselves. And they will have to reckon with it.”
After the U.S. declassified an intelligence report Tuesday that said Russian President Vladimir Putin likely directed a campaign aimed at denigrating Biden in last year’s presidential election, Biden said Putin “will pay a price.”
“We had a long talk, he and I -- I know him relatively well,” Biden said of Putin. “And the conversation started off — I said, 'I know you, and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.'”
Biden said “you’ll see shortly” how the U.S. plans to punish Russia.
Biden also was asked about a story he’s told before about how he once told Putin he had “no soul.”
“I wasn't being a wise guy,” he said. “I was alone with him in his office. That's how it came about. It was when President [George W.] Bush had said, 'I've looked in his eyes and saw his soul.' I said, I looked in your eyes, and I don't think you have a soul.' And [he] looked back at me said, 'We understand each other.'”
The White House said Thursday that Biden did not regret his comments.
“President Biden has known President Putin for a long time," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a press briefing. “They’ve both been on the global stage for a long time, worked through many iterations of a relationship between the United States and Russia. And he believes we can continue to do that.”
Psaki added that Biden will continue to look to work with Putin on areas of mutual concern such as efforts to stem Iran’s nuclear program and, more broadly, nuclear nonproliferation. But she said that Biden is “not going to hold back” when he has concerns about Putin’s actions.
Psaki also dismissed Putin’s “it-takes-one-to-know-one”-style response, suggesting Biden’s words reflected the United States’ own problems.
“The president believes that one of the greatest attributes of the United States is our honest self-reflection, and our constant striving for progress and there’s always more work to do,” she said.
Speaking in separate comments later Thursday, Putin said he would ask the Foreign Ministry to arrange a call with Biden in the next few days to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, regional conflicts and other issues.
“We must continue our relations,” he noted. “Last time, President Biden initiated a call and now I would like to offer President Biden to continue our discussions. It would be in the interest of both Russian and the U.S. people and other countries, bearing in mind that we bear a special responsibility for global security as the largest nuclear powers.”
Other Russian lawmakers offered much more pointed criticism of Biden, including Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who slammed Biden's rhetoric as "very bad remarks by the U.S. president."
Russia’s relations with the United States and the European Union already have plunged to post-Cold War lows after Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, election meddling, hacking attacks and most recently, the jailing of Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny that followed his poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities rejected the accusations.
Asked about Biden’s remark on Putin, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Berlin expects “a clear language in Washington toward Russia,” but emphasized that “there needs to be dialogue and agreement” on issues such as climate change and disarmament, noting that Biden quickly extended the New START arms control agreement with Russia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.