President Biden delivered a speech in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday evening wrapping up his four-day trip to Europe with what was widely interpreted as a shocking call for regime change in Russia.
In the speech, Biden promised that the United States will accept thousands of Ukrainian refugees, reiterated that American troops will not be sent to fight in Ukraine, and touted his plan to help Europe "end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
He then addressed the Russian people, accusing Putin of increasing the resolve of the Western democracies and causing a "brain drain" in Russia.
"You, the Russian people, are not our enemy," Biden said, reciting a catalog of the atrocities Russian forces have committed in Ukraine. "These are not the actions of a great nation ... Vladimir Putin's aggression has cut you, the Russian people, off from the rest of the world. He's taking Russia back to the 19th century. This is not who you are ... This war is not worthy of you, the Russian people."
Biden ended his speech with an apparently clear call for Putin to be deposed. "A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people's love for liberty," he said. "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."
The Biden administration has previously been wary of calls for regime change in Russia. When Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) called earlier this month for a Russian "Brutus" to assassinate Putin, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said his comments did not reflect "the position of the United States government," NPR reported. A few days later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that American opposition to the invasion of Ukraine is "not about regime change" in Russia.
Update 7:15 p.m.: A statement from the White House after Biden's Saturday remarks said Biden was not calling Putin's ouster: "The president's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change."
-
Trump sends FBI to patrol DC, despite falling crimeSpeed Read Washington, D.C., 'has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,' Trump said
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monumentsSpeed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seatspeed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
-
ICE scraps age limits amid hiring pushSpeed Read Anyone 18 or older can now apply to be an ICE agent
-
Trump's global tariffs take effect, with new additionsSpeed Read Tariffs on more than 90 US trading partners went into effect, escalating the global trade war
-
House committee subpoenas Epstein filesSpeed Read The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for its Jeffrey Epstein files with an Aug. 19 deadline
-
Eighty years after Hiroshima: how close is nuclear conflict?Today's Big Question Eight decades on from the first atomic bomb 'we have blundered into a new age of nuclear perils'
-
India rejects Trump threat over Russian oilSpeed Read The president said he would raise tariffs on India for buying and selling Russian oil
