Russia called its ambassador to the United States back “for consultations,” the country’s foreign minister said on Wednesday, just hours after comments by President Joe Biden criticizing Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not cite specific reasons for dismissing Ambassador Anatoly Antonov, but indicated that relations between Moscow and Washington “are going through difficult times”, blaming Washington for taking them ” to a dead end “.
In a separate interview on Thursday, Zakharova noted that “consultations” with Antonov will take “as long as necessary,” according to Russian state news agency Tass.
Although Zakharova did not mention Biden’s comments directly in his statement, the Russian embassy in the United States released its own comment on Thursday, blaming “certain reckless statements by top US officials” for placing “already excessively conflicting relations under the threat of collapse. “
The move to recall Antonov came not long after a television interview, in which Biden was asked whether he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was a murderer and said “Yes”.
Biden confirmed in the interview that he once said to Putin that he “has no soul” during a visit to the Kremlin as vice president in 2011, to which he said that Putin replied: “We understand each other”.
Biden also said Russia would face consequences for meddling in last year’s presidential election, after a disqualified report from the U.S. intelligence director’s office found earlier this week that Putin authorized influence operations to help Donald Trump in the November election. past.
“(Putin) is going to pay a price,” Biden told ABC News, asked about the report. Biden did not disclose the price that Putin could pay, just saying, “you will see soon”.
The Kremlin had previously dismissed the report’s claims as unfounded.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Biden’s comments were “very bad”.
“I will not be wordy in reaction to this,” said Peskov. “I will just say that these are very bad statements by the President of the United States.”
“He definitely does not want to improve relations with our country,” he added.
Peskov said he did not know whether Putin planned to respond directly to Biden’s comments.
The State Department said on Wednesday that it was aware of Russia’s decision to fire the ambassador.
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jen Psaki said the Biden government will take a more direct and direct approach to its relationship with Russia than former President Donald Trump.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have been strained since Biden took office.
The arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after his poisoning with a nervous agent last year became the first test for the Biden government in its negotiations with the Kremlin.
In coordination with the European Union, the United States announced sanctions earlier this month against key members of the Russian government in connection with Navalny’s poisoning.
The sanctions were the first to hit Moscow since Biden became president and opened a comprehensive review of US-Russia policy, including the Kremlin’s actions against Navalny, interference in the US elections, Solar Winds hack and reports of rewards offered to groups. linked to the Taliban to target US forces in Afghanistan.
Since Biden’s inauguration, the only moment of cooperation between the two nations came when the United States and Russia extended a crucial nuclear weapons control treaty last month.
On Thursday, Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian upper house of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said that Biden calling Putin a murderer was a “watershed moment”.
“All expectations of the US government’s new policy on the direction of Russia have been dashed by this crude statement,” said Kosachev in a Facebook post.
He called Antonov’s recall an adequate reaction by the Kremlin, adding that it would not be Russia’s last move unless there was an explanation or an apology on the American side.
Tatyana Chistikova contributed.