President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that he had not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of efforts to secure the release of Americans and dissidents detained by Russia on Thursday.
Pressed on whether he planned to speak to the Russian strongman, Biden told reporters in the State Dining Room: “I don’t need to talk to Putin.”
The last public interaction the two leaders had was in February 2022, just two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. According to a White House statement at the time, Biden “reiterated that a new Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing.”
Since then, Biden has referred to Putin in increasingly disparaging terms. In a June interview with ABC, the president told David Muir that Putin was “not a decent man — he’s a dictator and he’s struggling to keep his country together and at the same time keep this attack going.”
Asked how he justifies releasing Russian prisoners in exchange for American ones, Biden said all that matters is that he “brought home innocent people.”
“Family is the beginning, the middle and the end,” he said. “I can’t think of anything more important,” the president added.
In exchange for American detainees, a number of Russian dissidents were also released, including a former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service convicted of murder, as well as several individuals accused of espionage or cybercrimes.
Source: CNN Brasil
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