Russian Official Demands Biden Apologize to Putin for 'Killer' Accusation

Russian President Vladimir Putin fired back at American counterpart Joe Biden’s accusation that he’s a killer, saying “it takes one to know one” as he insisted the U.S. will have to take Russia’s interests into account despite insults.

“I would say to him: I wish you good health,” Putin said Thursday, asked for his response during a televised videoconference celebrating the anniversary of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. He said Moscow would continue to work with Washington in areas of common interest, even as he claimed there were sharp, even biological, differences between Russians and Americans.

“Although they think we are the same as them, we are different people, we have a different genetic and cultural-moral code,” Putin said, citing slavery and the U.S. use of nuclear weapons in World War II. “But we know how to defend our own interests, and we will work with them but in those areas in which we are interested and on terms we consider favorable for us. And they will have to reckon with that.”

Other Russian officials talked tougher, but there was no immediate indication the Kremlin planned to go beyond its initial response of recalling its ambassador from Washington.

Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament demanded an apology from Biden for his “boorish” allegations. The U.S. president’s remark is a “watershed” in relations and “unacceptable in any circumstances,” Kosachyov wrote on Facebook Thursday.

Late Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry announced it was summoning Ambassador Anatoly Antonov for consultations. Warning of the risks of “an irreversible deterioration in relations” with the new U.S. administration, the ministry said Russia still hopes to reverse the downward spiral.

“Putin’s initial reaction showed there is no desire to go along the path of escalation,” said Andrey Kortunov, head of the Kremlin-founded Russian International Affairs Council. “The Russian side is willing to put it behind it as long as there aren’t any more such inflammatory statements in the future.”

The diplomatic demarche came after Biden agreed with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview that Putin was a killer and said the Russian leader would “pay a price” for alleged meddling in U.S. elections.

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