President Putin of Russia says that relations between Russia and America are at the lowest levels in years

 

President Putin of Russia says that relations between Russia and America are at the lowest level in years. NBC News. Putin made the comments with an NBC News journalist in a wide ranging interview. Putin praised President Trump calling him talented and saying that he had came from outside of the political machine. He also called Joe Biden the exact opposite of Trump. Putin has been called a killer by Biden but Putin downplayed the comments saying that people accuse him of all kinds of things. He also dismissed a report that Russia was going to give Iran satellite technology calling it fake news. 

My Comment:

Fairly interesting video above. I had to admit that it was a total power move by Putin to conduct the interview in Russia. Putin speaks English fluently and there are plenty of videos of him speaking the language. He must take it as a point of pride to not speak English to an American news organization.

I do think that our relations with Russia are worse than any time in my life time other than the Able Archer 83 exercises that the Soviets mistook for the prelude to a war. I don't think we are in that dire of straits but I don't see any daylight between Biden and Putin. 

As for Putin getting called a killer again, I don't think it's inaccurate but I also don't think it matters that much. Basically every head of state is a killer in some way, especially when that country is at war. I also don't doubt that Putin has ordered some of his critics killed, but I also don't doubt that Biden has done the same thing. At that level of power everyone is a killer. 

Biden was not smart to insult Putin though. Him calling Putin a killer was an own goal that may have helped his domestic critics on the left but did nothing at lowering tensions with Russia. However, I don't think Biden has totally burned bridges with Putin as he hasn't gone as far as calling him a Nazi, like Hillary Clinton did. 

I expect nothing from the meeting between Biden and Putin. There is basically nothing the two men agree on and I can't expect any kind of breakthrough to happen when they meet. Indeed, my only optimism about the meeting is that I don't think Biden will anger Putin any more than he already has. 

I do wish that better relations with Russia. I think a lot of the criticisms of Russia are fairly unfair as our actual allies are not any better than them. And I would love to have them as an ally against our true enemy, China. But given the massive influence of Russia hawks in our "intelligence" community I don't see better relations with Russia happening any time soon...