U.S. President Joe Biden called for the ouster of Vladimir Putin, an unscripted and revealing aside that risks emboldening an already erratic and paranoid Russian leader who ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Biden took the stage in Warsaw on Saturday evening 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 U.S. president for another leader’s removal. Several White House officials quickly attempted to walk back the comments, yet 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.”
Earlier in his visit to Poland, the biggest recipient of Ukrainian refugees, Biden called Putin “a butcher.” His words will revive a debate back home in the U.S., which has a checkered history of intervening abroad and just emerged bruised from a...
Renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for relying on claims by United States President Donald Trump regarding the reported killing of senior Islamic ...