Obscenity-loving Joe delivers a ‘rude’ shock for the Kremlin

An angry response from the Kremlin after Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a ‘crazy SOB’ has been followed by a quite different spin from Putin himself.

Vladimir Putin, right, says of Joe Biden: ‘It’s not like he can say to me, ‘Volodya (Russian diminutive for Vladimir), thank you, well done, you’ve helped me a lot.’’ Pictures: AFP

Joe Biden has called Vladimir Putin a “crazy SOB”, prompting not just an angry response from the Kremlin but also a claim by the Russian President that that is why he prefers the Democrat over Don­ald Trump as US president.

The row started after Mr Biden made his remarks during a fundraising event in San Francisco on Thursday (AEDT) as he discussed the risk of a nuclear conflict amid the Russian war with Ukraine.

In a brief address to a small group of reporters, he said: “We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate.”

Putin called the remark “rude” but said there were advantages for Moscow in Mr Biden’s outburst.

“We are ready to work with any president,” he told state TV with a slight smile.

“But I believe that for us, Biden is a more preferable president for Russia, and judging by what he has just said, I am absolutely right. It’s not like he can say to me, ‘Volodya (Russian diminutive for Vladimir), thank you, well done, you’ve helped me a lot.’

“You asked me which is better for us. I said it then, and I still think I can repeat it: Biden.”

That repeated a claim Putin made last week that he wanted Mr Biden to win a second term in the White House because he was “more experienced” and “predictable”.

Putin’s words followed an initially furious response on Friday AEDT from the Kremlin, which claimed Mr Biden had debased the US with his remarks.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a poor attempt by Mr Biden to appear like a “Hollywood cowboy”, adding: “The use of such language against the head of another state by the President of the US is unlikely to infringe on our … President Putin. It debases those who use such vocabulary. Has Mr Putin ever used one crude word to address you (Mr Biden)? This has never happened … I think such ­vocabulary debases America itself.”

Mr Biden also criticised Mr Trump for comparing his own legal troubles to the persecution of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition activist who died in prison last week.

“Some of the things that this fellow’s been saying, like he’s comparing himself to Navalny and saying that because our country’s become a communist country, he was persecuted, just like Navalny was persecuted. I don’t know where the hell this comes from,” Mr Biden said.

“I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed. It astounds me.”

It is not the first time Mr Biden has made personal remarks about Putin. In a 2014 meeting in Moscow, he accused the Russian leader of having no soul.

It is also not the first time he has used the phrase “SOB”. In 2022, after Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked him if inflation was a political liability for his party, Mr Biden was picked up on a live microphone saying: “No, that’s a great asset. More inflation.” He added: “What a stupid son of a bitch.” Doocy said the President later rang him to apologise.

Mr Biden also has a reputation for using expletives, with multiple recent reports in the US confirming he regularly refers to Mr Trump in private, as a “sick f..k” and a “f..king asshole”.

The Times