President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he and US President Joe Biden should hold live talks in the upcoming days. The proposal came after President Biden affirmed he thought Putin was a killer, as was reported by Reuters.
“I want to propose to President Biden to continue our discussion, but on the condition that we do it basically live, as it’s called. Without any delays and directly in an open, direct discussion. It seems to me that would be interesting for the people of Russia and for the people of the United States," Putin proposed when asked about Biden’s comments by a Russian reporter.
According to the White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, Biden had no regrets about calling Putin a killer and swatted away a question about Putin’s request for an immediate call in public.
“I would say the president already had a conversation with President Putin, even as there are more world leaders that he has not yet engaged with,” Psaki stated on Thursday. “The president will of course be in Georgia tomorrow and quite busy.”
Putin said he was ready to discuss Russia’s relations with the United States and other issues such as regional conflicts “tomorrow or, say, on Monday… at any time convenient for the American side.”
It's worth noting that the two leaders last spoke by phone on Jan. 26, days after Biden took office.
According to ABC News, Biden’s remarks in the ABC interview that aired Wednesday triggered a furious reaction from Russia’s government, which unleashed a barrage of criticism.
"I'll say only that these remarks by the U.S. president are very bad. He definitely doesn't want to normalize relations with our country. And we'll be acting based precisely on this premise," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the situation.