US Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris addressed the media prior to boarding Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on October 12, as reported by AFP.
The Kremlin responded on Saturday to Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris's characterization of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "murderous dictator," suggesting that Washington politicians aim to impose their perspectives globally. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov's remarks were the latest in ongoing exchanges concerning the US presidential election and Russia's ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has persisted for over two and a half years.
"The lofty political establishment of the United States of America, to all appearances, is infused with such a political culture," Russian news agencies quoted Peskov as stating during a television interview. "This is probably the quintessence of the very model of international relations that they are trying to foist on the entire world, a model that most in the world are beginning to like less and less."
Peskov's comments seemed to be in reaction to Harris's critique of a report in a recently released book by US journalist Bob Woodward, which claimed that Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump, during his tenure, had sent Covid tests to Russia at the peak of the pandemic. In a radio interview, Harris referred to Putin as a "murderous dictator."
As tensions between Russia and the United States reach levels not seen since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, both nations have urged the other to cease discussing domestic matters. The United States previously instructed Putin to halt commentary on the US election in February and again last month when the Kremlin leader implied he preferred Harris over Trump in the upcoming poll due to her "infectious laugh."
This exchange led Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to comment that Putin "often jokes" in his public statements. According to summaries of Woodward's book by the Washington Post and the New York Times, US President Joe Biden privately expressed strong disapproval of several foreign leaders, including Putin, whom he described as the "epitome of evil."
