Not only the Kremlin took issue with Biden’s statement, which is unclear whether it was planned or due to the Democrat’s often loose tongue. The sentence also caused a shake of the head among European allies.
Nobody wants a change of power in Russia, assured the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday evening in the ARD – not NATO and not even the US President. French President Emmanuel Macron, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and a representative of the British government had previously emphatically asserted that they did not want to saw Putin’s chair.
Only the head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, defended Biden. “The international community has an interest in the important country of Russia being governed by a person people can rely on,” he told Reuters on Monday.