6:39 pm: White House tries to temper Joe Biden’s comments

Declaring on Saturday that Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power” following his invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden blurred the message of his Europe tour, aimed at showing the unity of the Allies in the face of Russia and Russia. . Control the conflict in Ukraine. “What the president meant was that Putin could not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,” the White House qualified minutes later. “He was not talking about Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change. »

“As you have heard us repeat, we have no regime change strategy in Russia or anywhere else,” defended Anthony Blinken. The announcement caused a ruckus in both Europe and the US. Emmanuel Macron declared, “I will not use such remarks as I continue to have discussions with President Putin.”

Republican Senator Jim Risch called Mr Biden’s speech at the end of an emotional day in Poland a “good speech”, including a meeting with refugees from Ukraine. “But in the end it was a huge mistake,” he said. For analyst Richard Haas, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Vladimir “Putin would regard this as confirmation of what he believed from the beginning”.