Saturday, the US president said that his Russian counterpart “can not remain in power”, triggering an avalanche of comments and questions, and obliging his own advisers to specify the meaning of his remarks .
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It had to be the apotheosis of a two-day visit to Poland, dense and successful. The speech delivered by Joe Biden on Saturday, March 26, at the Royal Palace in Warsaw, had been polite, neat, to make it a terminal in his foreign policy. This address to the Poles and Europeans in general was an opportunity to emphasize the coherence of the American approach to the Russian invasion in Ukraine: Drastic economic sanctions against Moscow, deliveries of arms, refusing a direct military commitment, absolute unit between allies.
And then a sentence fell, improvised, just before the US president withdraws. “For the love of God, this man can not stay in power.” So by Joe Biden of Vladimir Putin.
The American president had just parasted his own speech, or his disciplined political line since October 2021 with regard to Moscow. A line that is both realistic – on American – and intransigent limitations, based on economic pressure and cohesion of the Western block. A line embodied by two men, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, who have never been fault of an oratory mastery.
Warsaw’s speech had been a great skill. Joe Biden mentioned the long and harsh fight against freedom, touching his audience by relevant historical references. He had denounced the lies of the Kremlin, greeted the extraordinary mobilization of the Poles in favor of the refugees, insured of the strength of Article 5 of NATO, “sacred obligation” of collective solidarity in the event of a threat to one of the its members.
But the fateful phrase, barely pronounced, triggered an avalanche of comments and questions. Joe Biden’s own advisers were forced to clarify in a hurry “what the president meant”. No, the latter would not have dreamed aloud with a change of regime in Russia. No, Washington did not have to adopt an aggressive destabilization strategy for the Kremlin. “What the president meant is that Putin can not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or on the region,” said
“it’s a Butcher “
Sunday, Antony Blinken also sought to straighten the bar. On the move in Israel, he pointed out: “As you heard us repeatedly, we do not have a regime change strategy in Russia, nor anywhere else. In this case, as in all case, it is to the people of the country in question to decide. It is to the Russian people to decide. “
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