Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday shared a Russian proverb when asked about U.S. President Joe Biden's recent call for leaders to unite in suppressing Putin.
"We have a well-known saying in Russia: 'Live forever, learn forever.' And this applies not only to President Joe Biden, but also to the U.S. political elites as a whole," Putin said, according to the Kremlin-run news agency TASS.
He reportedly made the remarks while answering questions from a journalist who works for the Russian state-owned media outlet VGTRK. The journalist had asked Putin about comments Biden made during an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday about rallying the world against Putin.
"Imagine what happens if we, in fact, unite all of Europe and Putin is finally put down where he cannot cause the kind of trouble he's been causing," Biden said. "We have enormous opportunities, enormous opportunities to make it a better world."
Speaking with VGTRK from Beijing, Putin said Biden and U.S. officials must learn to respect the Russian people.
"This is not about me personally. This is about the interests of the country. And it is impossible to suppress the interests of Russia. They have to be taken into account," he said, per TASS.
Putin continued: "You must learn to respect others, and then there will be no need to suppress anyone."
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.
Biden has frequently condemned Putin for the war the Russian president launched on Ukraine in February 2022, and the United States has been the largest supplier of aid to Kyiv throughout the conflict.
On Tuesday, the White House and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the U.S. had supplied Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which marked a significant change in the Biden administration's stance regarding the supply of long-range weapons to Kyiv.
Kyiv officials had long requested long-range surface-to-surface missiles from the U.S., but the Biden administration had until now been reluctant to provide Kyiv with long-range missiles out of concern that such a move could result in a military escalation by Putin.
Ukrainian media on Tuesday reported that ATACMS were used in overnight strikes on Russian airfields in two occupied Ukrainian cities, resulting in the destruction of nine helicopters and the deaths of an unspecified amount of Russian soldiers.
Putin did not publicly comment on the ATACMS assault during his first day in Beijing, where he was invited by Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the third Belt and Road forum.
The visit to China is Putin's first trip outside countries of the former Soviet Union since the International Criminal Court (ICC), of which China is not a member, issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes in March.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
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