(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Joe Biden claimed on June 6, 2024, that he has “known” Vladimir Putin “for over 40 years,” even though it is not possible because the Russian dictator has been serving as an undercover KGB intelligence officer through the entire 1980s.
“I’ve known him for over 40 years. He’s concerned me for 40 years. He’s not a decent man,” an 81-year-old Biden said.
Biden made his remarks during the interview with ABC News anchor David Muir in France at the Normandy American Cemetery to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the New York Post reported.
However, Biden couldn’t have known Putin for such a long time because one of the biggest enemies of the United States worked as an intelligence officer in the Soviet Union’s spy network from 1975 to 1991, with postings in his hometown of St. Petersburg and the former East Germany before he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
From 1991 to 1996, Putin served as an aide to St. Petersburg’s then-mayor Anatoly Sobchak and as deputy mayor. After that, he worked as a staff member at the Kremlin and head of the Federal Security Service, which succeeded the KGB after the USSR collapsed in 1991, the news source reported.
“Until he was handpicked in August [1999] by then-President Boris Yeltsin to become prime minister, Putin had never been a public figure,” the Washington Post wrote in January 2000.
However, Biden did meet Putin at least once, when the former was serving as the United States vice president and the latter was Russia’s prime minister. The other time they spoke was at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 2021.
In his June 6, 2024, interview, Biden talked about the permission for Ukraine to use American weapons to strike inside the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region.
“They’re authorized to be used in proximity to the border when they’re being used on the other side of the border to attack specific targets in Ukraine. We’re not authorizing strikes 200 miles into Russia and we’re not authorizing strikes on Moscow, on the Kremlin,” he said.
The U.S. supply of weapons to Ukraine and authorization of their use was a “direct participation in the war against the Russian Federation,” Putin said on June 5, 2024, adding that the Kremlin would “reserve the right to act in a similar way.” As expected, Putin never mentioned that he started the war in the first place.
