Putin: Russian-American relations are at the lowest lows in decades

Russian-American relations have reached their worst in years since Democrat Joe Biden moved into the White House. That’s what Russian president Vladimir Putin says on Friday in his first interview in years with an American news medium. The NBC News interview with Putin will be broadcast in its entirety on Monday.

Putin gave the interview with NBC ahead of his meeting with US president Biden next week. “Our bilateral relations have deteriorated to a low in recent years,” said Putin, who got along better with Biden’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump. Nevertheless, in the interview, Putin said he hoped Biden would be less impulsive than Trump, whom he described as “colorful.”

Biden previously called Putin a “murderer”, with which the US president referred to the assassinations of numerous opponents of Putin since the former KGB agent from the Kremlin ruled.

Putin said in the NBC interview that he has heard dozens of such accusations and that he is not worried about them. Putin dismissed Biden’s statement as “macho behavior” from Hollywood films, saying that Biden’s rhetoric is “part of American political culture, where it is considered normal.”

In the interview, Putin also discusses last year’s large-scale cyber attack on US governments and companies. He denied having any knowledge of the attack. American intelligence has repeatedly stated that a Russian hacker collective is most likely behind these computer break-ins. Putin also denied knowing anything about Russian satellite technology that would be supplied to Iran.

Biden has started his first European trip this week. On Wednesday, he meets Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, before flying back to Washington.