Biden calls for Putin’s ouster in escalation over Ukraine

Bloomberg

US President Joe Biden called for the ouster of Vladimir Putin, an unscripted and revealing aside that risks feeding the Russian president’s narrative that the conflict is in fact an effort to remove him from power, not simply to stop his invasion of Ukraine.
Biden took the stage in Warsaw to deliver one of the most consequential speeches of his presidency, evoking Ronald Reagan among the Cold War foes of Soviet domination and warning the world to steel for a long battle in the fight for Ukraine against Putin.
He closed his address with an eyebrow-raising comment: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
The ad-libbed remark represents a rare call by a US president for another leader’s removal. Biden’s tone redefines the stakes of the conflict — and potentially fuels Russian propaganda, which has sought to justify Putin’s attack on Ukraine with false claims of a need to respond to Nato aggression.
“A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people’s love for liberty,” Biden said.
“Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.”
Several White House officials quickly attempted to walk back the comments as did US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during an appearance.
Biden “made the point that quite simply that President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine, or anywhere else,” Blinken told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem with his Israeli counterpart. “As you’ve heard us say, repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else.”
Earlier in Biden’s visit to Poland, the biggest recipient of Ukrainian refugees, he called Putin “a butcher.” His words will revive a debate back home in the US, which has a checkered history of intervening abroad and just emerged bruised from a chaotic exit out of Afghanistan. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham had drawn controversy by calling on Russians to take out Putin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that Putin’s future isn’t for Biden to decide. “The president of Russia is elected by Russians,” Peskov told Reuters. Daily insults of Putin “narrow the window of opportunity for normalising
dialogue, so much needed
now, with the current US administration,” Peskov told Bloomberg News in response to a request for comments on Biden’s remarks.

Biden’s trip previously plotted a more conventional strategy of rallying support among allies, announcing new sanctions against Russia, pledging further aid and seeking to cut off Russia’s natural-gas revenue.
He visited U.S. troops stationed in Poland about an hour from the Ukrainian border on Friday. On Saturday, he held talks with two top Ukrainian officials, met Poland’s president and comforted refugees from Ukraine at a Warsaw stadium.
A few hours later, he stepped into the outdoor courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, where hundreds of dignitaries lined up hours earlier to watch his speech. Some waved Ukrainian or U.S. flags, and some cheered with each line.
Biden declared Russian’s invasion of Ukraine “a strategic failure” and touted the commitment to Article 5, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s mutual defense clause.
“Don’t even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory,” Biden said.
Other elements of Biden’s trip still lack detail. A deal with the EU to wean Europe off Russian natural gas will take years to come to fruition, and it isn’t clear where a promised additional 15 billion cubic meters to Europe this year will come from. An administration plan to accept as many as 100,000 people from Ukraine doesn’t have a timeline yet.
Biden also left the continent without wavering on the U.S. rejection of Ukrainian pleas for certain kinds of military aid, including supplying fighter jets or enforcing a no-fly zone to close Ukraine’s skies. The U.S. also is cool to other suggestions, including some type of peacekeeping force.
Even so, Biden said his message to Ukraine was firm: “We stand with you, period.”