Biden made a big speech today in Poland;
Quote:
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday that Russia's leader Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power" in a fiery speech pushing the world's democracies to unite to support Ukraine, though the White House later said Biden was not calling for regime change in Moscow.
"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden told a crowd in Warsaw after condemning Putin's month-long war in Ukraine as an assault on global freedom and security.
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https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ch-2022-03-26/
Got to say, this makes me feel weird and uncomfortable. On one hand I get it, it's obvious this is what the west is trying to achieve anyway. Also, I agree with Biden, at this point removing Putin from power is the only chance for any kind of longterm stability, because even if he was beaten now, he would only double his efforts to get back at the rest of the world in any and every way he can, possibly causing more instability and chaos, and more pain for the Russian people. Putin is clearly past the point of caring in even the smallest way about what his actions might do to his own people. (Not that he ever cared much.)
On the other, it feels like something best not said aloud. The Russians need to do this themselves, and the optics of Biden saying it out aloud I think just make it harder. At least it makes it easier for Putin to paint anyone opposing him as a western agent.
I don't get it.
That said, I would imagine Biden has quite a lot of people going through his speeches and evaluating the effect it would have in Russia (if any), and maybe they know what they're doing.
Still makes me uncomfortable.