Moscow has mockingly called Joe Biden a ‘pro-Russian candidate being controlled by the Kremlin’ after his major gaffe at the NATO summit in which he addressed the Ukrainian as ‘President Putin’.
Biden, 81, provoked audible gasps at the summit in DC on Thursday when he misspoke and incorrectly introduced Volodymyr Zelensky as the Russian leader.
The colossal slip-up, which the Kremlin said had been widely noticed, prominently featured in Russian news bulletins on Friday.
Russia’s high-profile Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova published a sarcastic commentary featuring the error to mock what Moscow says are false allegations it has meddled in American politics.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also addressed the gaffe, branding it an ‘internal US topic’ while also warning that ‘disrespectful’ comments about Putin – whom Biden referred to as ‘a murderous madman’ – are ‘unacceptable to us’.
Joe Biden, 81, provoked audible gasps at the NATO summit on Thursday when he misspoke and incorrectly introduced Ukrainian Preisdent Volodymyr Zelensky as Vladimir Putin
Moscow has now mockingly called Biden a ‘pro-Russian candidate being controlled by the Kremlin’ after the major gaffe. Vladimir Putin is pictured at the BRICS Parliamentary Forum on July 11 2024 in Saint Petersburg, Russia
Zakharova used Biden’s error in introducing Zelensky as Putin to mock allegations that the Kremlin meddled in the US elections.
‘It seems to me that the notorious ‘Russian interference in the American elections’ cannot be hidden any longer – there is a pro-Russian candidate (Biden) who is controlled by the ‘hand of the Kremlin,” Zakharova joked on her official Telegram account.
Peskov told reporters in Moscow: ‘We noticed that the whole world paid attention to what happened… It’s clear that these were slips of the tongue.’
He added that Biden’s gaffes were ‘an internal US topic’, saying: ‘It’s not our topic. It’s a topic for the US. Let American voters determine the chances of the presidential candidates.’
He said however that the Kremlin had taken note of what it called disrespectful comments Biden had made about Putin.
Peskov continued: ‘For us this was unacceptable. It such behavior does not make an American head of state look good.’
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, also weighed in on the mistake, saying it was one anyone could, but that Biden seemed to make one every day because he was ‘retarded’.
Biden said he had made the slip over Zelensky’s name because he was ‘so focused on beating Putin.’
The US President also mixed up the names of his Republican rival Donald Trump with that of Kamala Harris, his vice-president, during Thursday’s event.
The US President also mixed up the names of his Republican rival Donald Trump (pictured at a campaign rally in Florida on Tuesday) with that of Kamala Harris , his vice-president, during Thursday’s even
Russian media has covered the Biden gaffe extensively with Rossiya TV showing it at the top of its 9pm bulletin.
The program said: ‘America’s vassals pretended that they’d not noticed anything.’
NTV said Biden’s ‘latest slip of the tongue is worthy of an Oscar’.
Meanwhile, popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets ran an article headlined ‘Senile Leaders’ which compared the US President to the elderly Communist leaders of the USSR.
It said: ‘What’s more dangerous, a monkey with a grenade or a shaking hand on the nuclear button?’
Olga Skabeyeva, a pro-Kremlin TV commentator, posted a clip of Biden’s Putin name fumble on her social media feed with a crying with laughter emoji.
‘The show from Joe goes on!,’ she wrote separately beneath footage of the Trump/Harris name mix-up.
The hawkish foreign policy commentators in Russia said Biden’s slips were further proof of his declining mental abilities and some expressed alarm that the world’s most powerful military power was led by someone whose cognitive abilities appeared to be getting progressively worse.
Dmitry Peskov (pictured) told reporters that Moscow had noted Biden’s slips along with the rest of the world
It comes after a report that claimed Russian intelligence services are attempting to interfere in the US Presidential race to elect Trump.
Several US officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in Washington confirmed the existence of the Russian plan when speaking to The Wall Street Journal.
A senior official said: ‘We haven’t observed a shift in Russia’s preferences for the presidential race from past elections.’
Various security agencies have previously confirmed that similar Kremlin attacks on US democracy favored Trump.
In addition to its online operations, the report alleges that agents are attempting to influence members of Congress but the scale of the operation is smaller than the one seen in 2016, which aided Trump’s ascendancy.
Then on Tuesday, the Justice Department announced the shutting down of a Kremlin-backed bot farm that was set up in order to spread discord across the US regarding Russia’s foreign policy.
According to a press release from the DOJ, the bot farm ran close 1,000 accounts on Elon Musk’s X social media platform.
The South African billionaire has made dozens of posts in recent days regarding election integrity but has not so far mentioned the presence of politically active bot accounts on X.
‘Today’s actions represent a first in disrupting a Russian-sponsored Generative AI-enhanced social media bot farm,’ FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.
The South African billionaire has made dozens of posts in recent days regarding election integrity
‘Russia intended to use this bot farm to disseminate AI-generated foreign disinformation, scaling their work with the assistance of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the Russian government.’
The person behind the scheme is believed to be a Russian national who is registered as a foreign agent with the State Department. He was formerly the editor-in-chief of the state-controlled Russia Today.
It received the support and financial approval of the Kremlin, with an officer of Russia’s Federal Security Service – or FSB – leading a private intelligence organization that promoted disinformation on social media through a network of fake accounts.
The RT press office did not respond directly to a question about the allegations.
Russia has always denied any involvement in interfering with elections.
US-Russia relations have plunged to their lowest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, in what it calls ‘a special military operation’ that it says is designed to protect its own national security.
Washington is Ukraine’s biggest sponsor and Moscow has sent signals in recent weeks that it is open to a deal to end the war, albeit on maximalist terms that Kyiv has dismissed as tantamount to surrender.
While Putin has said the outcome of the US election in November is unlikely to change anything for Russia, he has taken a public interest in Trump’s reported ideas to end the conflict.
Putin said earlier this month that he believed Trump was sincere about wanting to end the war, but did not know how Trump planned to do so if elected.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban (left) poses with former President Donald Trump (right) at Trump’s estate in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on July 11, 2024
Trump on Thursday received a visit from the EU’s longest-serving leader, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Orbán – who has endorsed Trump and is known as having the warmest relations with Putin in the bloc – travelled to the GOP hopeful’s Mar-a-Lago compound after wrapping up at the NATO summit in Washington.
He shared a photo of himself and Trump on social media with the caption: ‘We discussed ways to make peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it!’
On his own social media site, Trump posted: ‘Thank you Viktor. There must be PEACE, and quickly.’
The visit is his latest stop on what he calls a ‘peace mission’ aimed at brokering an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
As a first step last week, he astonished his allies by making a surprise trip to Ukraine – his first since Moscow invaded the country – followed by similarly unannounced visits to Russia and China for talks with two of the EU’s primary adversaries.
Orbán has long confounded his Western partners by pursuing warm ties with Putin, a relationship that was rendered more alarming when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He has also vigorously lobbied for Chinese investments and a more China-friendly economic policy while most EU countries seek to limit Beijing’s influence.
His recent meetings with Putin, Xi and Trump, which he did not announce in advance to any of his EU partners, drew significant backlash from European capitals and led some governments to consider boycotting or limiting participation in a series of upcoming informal meetings in Budapest related to the rotating presidency.
On Thursday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan signaled concern that the Trump-Orbán meeting runs counter to Ukraine’s interests, saying, ‘The U.S. position – the Biden administration position – is nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.’
‘Whatever adventurism that is being undertaken without Ukraine’s consent or support,’ Sullivan told reporters, ‘is not something that’s consistent with our policy.’
US President Joe Biden meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on July 11, 2024
President Joe Biden speaks during a press conference at the close of the 75th NATO Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on July 11, 2024
Meanwhile, Biden is facing calls from some fellow Democrats to abandon his re-election bid.
His closest allies, former President Barack Obama and Democrat grandee Nancy Pelosi, are said to have talked through the crisis and concluded that Biden’s chance of beating Trump is getting much harder every day.
Obama is said to be reluctant to go public with his concerns in case it helps Trump’s campaign – and his worries Biden’s chances are already ‘one of the worst kept secrets in Washington’.
He and Pelosi are still considering what action to take, CNN reports, as a Detroit Democrat congresswoman went public and said he must stand aside ‘for the good of democracy’.
