Kremlin slams dismissive tone of Biden’s speech on Putin, Ukraine

The Kremlin did not appreciate the text — or the tone — of President Biden’s Oval Office address Thursday night seeking a major new funding package that would include tens of billions of dollars to aid Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion force.

In his speech, Mr. Biden likened Russia’s war in Ukraine to the murderous rampage by Hamas militants against Israel on Oct. 7, said Russian forces had committed war crimes during the invasion, and charged that Russia, like Hamas, “wants to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.”

But it was the personal attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin — whom Mr. Biden repeatedly referred to only as “Putin” in his speech — that appeared to rankle Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“We do not accept such a tone towards Russia and towards our president,” Mr. Peskov told reporters on Friday in Moscow, according to a dispatch from the Russian government’s Tass news agency.

“The topic of Putin in the rhetoric of the U.S. establishment at all levels — from the low, middle and up to the highest -— it is a constant. And Putin’s family name is an integral part of U.S. domestic political life. We can see it, we can say it. This is visible to the naked eye,” Mr. Peskov complained.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said Mr. Biden’s harsh remarks only expose the folly of U.S. foreign policy and America’s willingness to underwrite other countries’ wars.

“The U.S.-led world continues to slide headfirst into the deepest possible abyss,” said Mr. Medvedev, who has come to assume the role as the Kremlin’s rhetorical bomb-thrower since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“Decisions are being made that clearly show not only how the [American] decisionmakers are hopelessly afflicted with mental illness, but have also lost the very last shreds of moral restraint,” Mr. Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

In addition to the substantive criticisms, Mr. Peskov implied that Mr. Biden’s tone was beyond the pale.

“It’s doubtful that such rhetoric is suitable for responsible national leaders,” he said.