Biden is right to call out a tyrant

It is no surprise that Joe Biden’s branding of Vladimir Putin as “a killer with no soul” has provoked ire in the Kremlin. But the US President had good reason to make it clear that his view of the Russian despot is substantially different to that of Donald Trump, who, inexplicably, never missed an opportunity to praise Mr Putin and expound on their friendship.

Once again, as in 2016, Russia stands accused in a major report by the US intelligence community of trying to interfere in an American election. The report claims Moscow sought to influence last November’s presidential race in favour of Mr Trump by “denigrating” Mr Biden and his family over alleged business dealings in Ukraine by his son, Hunter.

The report by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was sent to Mr Trump before he left office in January and declassified on Wednesday. Asked about it in an interview, Mr Biden pledged that Mr Putin would “pay a price” for the Russian interference. He agreed when asked whether he thought Mr Putin, a former KGB colonel, was a “killer”. He also confirmed that in 2014, as vice-president, he told Mr Putin in a meeting that “I don’t think you have a soul”.

Such plain speaking from world leaders is rare. Mr Biden deserves praise for calling out the Russian ruler’s repeated acts of brazen subversion, not just in the US but across the world. As Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers reported on Thursday, ASIO’s announcement that it had cracked “a major foreign espionage network operating in Australia” did not involve China; rather, “speculation in the intelligence community centred on Russia, which has traditionally regarded Australia as a backdoor to US intelligence”.

With his vast foreign policy experience, Mr Biden appears determined to confront Mr Putin in the way Mr Trump was unwilling to do. Doing so is in the interests of the Western alliance. The former president’s invariably gushing praise for the Russian leader was always misplaced and perplexing at a time when Mr Putin’s opponents were suffering unexplained deaths and he was using the deadly Soviet-era agent, Novichok, to launch an attack against adversaries in Britain.

Even in his final months in office, Mr Trump could see no wrong in his “friend Vladimir”. He tried to get him back into the G7, from which Russia was suspended following its outrageous 2014 invasion of Crimea, using an invitation to Scott Morrison to attend the 2020 summit as cover to bring in his friend. Angela Merkel and other G7 leaders soon saw through the ploy.

Strong and consistent Western leadership is essential in dealing with tyrants. Mr Biden’s clear-eyed assessment of the threat posed by the Russian despot deserves support.