“He’s going to pay a price,” Biden said of Putin in an interview aired on ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday. “We had a long conversation, he and I, and relatively well. And the conversation began: ‘I know you and you know me. If I find that it happened, be prepared. ‘
Biden held his first call with Putin in late January. The White House said at the time that Biden had confronted the Russian president about a number of issues, including Moscow’s interference in the 2020 US presidential election, the massive cyber attack by Solarwinds, the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and reports of Russian bounties. on U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan.
The president will not provide ABC with details on what ‘price’ Putin will pay, but the Biden government is expected to announce sanctions on election interference only next week, three U.S. State Department officials told CNN. The officials did not release any details related to the expected sanctions, but said they would be in several countries, including Russia, China and Iran.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday released a rating on foreign threats to the 2020 federal election. The review found that Russia strives to “disregard President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, former President Trump to support, undermine public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbate socio-political divisions in the US:
The report is the most comprehensive assessment of foreign threats for the 2020 election to date, with an outline of extensive influence operations by US opponents who wanted to undermine confidence in the democratic process, and also targeted specific presidential candidates.
It also confirms what was largely assumed and barely hidden last year: former President Donald Trump and his closest allies publicly embraced Russia’s disinformation campaign against Biden, meeting with Kremlin-linked figures who were part of the effort and their conspiracy theories promote.
During his interview with ABC, Biden was reminded of the 2011 exchange he said he had with Putin in the Kremlin.
Biden claims he told Putin he does not think Putin has a soul. Putin’s response, Biden recalls, was to say, “We understand each other.”
“Look, the most important thing to do with foreign leaders, and I’ve had a lot to do with them in my career, is to know the other man,” Biden told ABC.
When interviewer George Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he thought Putin was a murderer, the president said: ‘Mmmmm.
“You will soon see the price he will pay,” Biden continues. “There are places where it is in our common interest to work together. That is why I renewed the START agreement with him. It happened while he was doing it, but it is overwhelming in the interest of humanity that we have the prospect reduced on a nuclear switch. “
CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Marshall Cohen and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
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