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Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP<\/p><\/div>\n
By Shipwreckedcrew
\nRedState<\/p>\n
Vladimir Putin sat down with NBC News for his first on-camera interview with a western news agency in more than three years.<\/p>\n
Putin avoided public commentary during much of the Trump Administration, but less than six months into the Biden Administration he came out swinging at Biden and the US on a host of issues.<\/p>\n
Putin\u00a0spoke\u00a0for nearly an hour and a half as Biden\u00a0met with the leaders\u00a0of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, from which Russia was suspended in 2014 after it\u00a0annexed\u00a0the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This interview was carefully orchestrated by Putin to follow along after Biden\u2019s disastrous public appearances at the G7 and NATO Summits. Putin was not going to allow any demonstration of \u201cunity\u201d coming out of Biden\u2019s first foreign trip to be the only press story ahead of his meetings with Biden.<\/p>\n
For the most part defiant, and in some instances just plain trolling the Biden Administration, Putin showed the citizens of this country, using NBC News, why it is he\u2019s going to wipe the floor with addle-minded Joe Biden as long as he remains in the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you order the assassination of the woman who walked into the Congress and who was shot and killed by a policeman?\u201d Mr Putin said, referring to Ashli Babbitt, a California woman who died during the riot after being shot by a member of US Capitol Police, who was cleared of wrongdoing in her death.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know that 450 individuals were arrested after entering the Congress? And they didn\u2019t go there to steal a laptop. They came with political demands,\u201d said Mr Putin.<\/p>\n
The US, he reasoned, was guilty of the same intolerance for political dissent as his government has been accused of harbouring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Putting aside for the moment his reference to the death of Ashli Babbitt, his broader point regarding January 6 being a political protest that Democrats have demonized for political advantage is not inaccurate.\u00a0 Yes, some number of individuals \u2014 mixed in with the thousands there only to protest \u2014 came to the Capitol on January 6 prepared to undertake violent action if the opportunity presented itself. But the vast majority were there only to make their voices heard and demand action from their elected representatives.\u00a0 You can agree or disagree with whether what they were demanding was lawful, unlawful, constitutional, unconstitutional, or extra-constitutional \u2014 but they were there to make demands on their government as was their right guaranteed by the First Amendment.<\/p>\n
But the Democrats and the press have wrongfully categorized the entirety of the protest activity on January 6 as part of an effort to subvert the newly elected government.\u00a0 The Biden DOJ has painted all in attendance with a broad brush in its public comments about January 6, rather than carefully distinguishing those who were present to commit violent crimes from those there to \u201cpetition the Government for a redress of grievances<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putin understands this and will continue to use it to his political advantage by blunting complaints from the Biden Administration about his actions both in Russia and surrounding countries.<\/p>\n
More from Putin\u2019s interview:<\/p>\n
\nPutin said the U.S. allegations that Russian hackers or the government itself were behind cyberattacks in the U.S. were \u201cfarcical,\u201d and he challenged NBC News, and by implication the U.S. government, to produce proof that Russians were involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been accused of all kinds of things,\u201d he said. \u201cElection interference, cyberattacks and so on and so forth. And not once, not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. Just unfounded accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about Biden\u2019s criticism that Russia had added to global instability, he accused the U.S. of doing the same in Libya, Afghanistan and Syria. And the Russians aren\u2019t\u00a0cracking down\u00a0on internal dissent, he said, any more than the U.S. is doing with its laws against foreign agents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
No doubt the press and Democrats will seize upon his words of praise for Trump but once again Putin is merely trolling both.\u00a0 The context of his comments, and what he says about Biden makes it clear that Putin is happy to see Trump gone as Biden is someone Putin believes will be much easier to manipulate and\/or ignore.<\/p>\n
\nMore than once, Biden has recounted how he told Putin to his face that he doesn\u2019t \u201chave a soul\u201d during a Kremlin visit in 2011 when he was vice president.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not remember this particular part of our conversations,\u201d Putin said when he was asked about the characterization.<\/p>\n
Asked what he thought of Biden, Putin said he was a professional and suggested that he could work with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has spent virtually his entire adulthood in politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual. Otherwise he would not have become U.S. president,\u201d Putin said. \u201cHe is a colorful individual.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he also stressed the need for \u201cpredictability and stability\u201d in Russia\u2019s relationship with the U.S., adding, \u201cThis is something we haven\u2019t seen in recent years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Keep in mind what I noted at the start \u2014 this is Putin\u2019s first interview with a US news organization since 2018.\u00a0 He quit speaking in public during the Trump Administration because President Trump was not shy about responding bluntly and in public to things Putin said or did.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s taken the measure of the Biden Administration \u2014 and he\u2019s happy for the change. He can \u201cwork with\u201d Biden, and he\u2019s free to speak out in public without fear of meaningful rebuke or repercussions from the feckless foreign policy team now in charge.<\/p>\n
After all, he got Nordstream 2 approved and the Keystone XL pipeline shut down.\u00a0 Energy prices are high, and energy products are the No. 1 export from Russia to the world that keeps the Russian economy afloat.<\/p>\n
Putin is going to say whatever he wants to say safe in the knowledge that Biden is unable to formulate or articulate anything other than a rehearsed response.\u00a0 There is no one else of any meaningful political stature in the Biden Administration \u2014 certainly not Kamala Harris \u2014 who can challenge him on the world stage.\u00a0 The only individual with that stature would be former President Obama.<\/p>\n
But if Obama steps forward to engage Putin one-on-one, that only underscores the fact that Biden is unable to do so himself.<\/p>\n
It has already been announced that Biden and Putin will not appear together before the press.<\/p>\n
A more important question might be whether Biden appears before the press at all to discuss his talks with Putin.<\/p>\n