Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down with NBC reporter Keir Simmons for an in-depth interview. One of the first questions Simmons asked Putin if he was a “killer,” which caused him to laugh.
“Mr. President, are you a killer?” Simmons asked.
“Over my tenure, I’ve gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretext and reasons and at different caliber and fierceness, and none of it surprises me,” Putin responded.
Simmons pressed the president once more with the question, but he avoided the question. “Sentiments in terms of who calls someone what kind of labels, this is not something I worry about in the least,” Putin said.
The question is a follow-up to Biden’s statement in an ABC News interview in March. Biden went on to call the Russian president a “killer.”
Russia has demanded that President Biden apologize for the remark, though Putin stated the comments do not hurt him.
Tensions within Russia and the U.S. relationship are at an all-time high, but Putin said in the NBC interview that he is hopeful about working with Biden.
The two presidents have their first meeting next week. Biden expects to confront the Russian president on cyberattacks from Russian groups, Ukraine, and the treatment of jailed Kremlin opponent leader Alexei Navalny, along with other issues.
In the last year, MSNBC Joe Scarborough compared former President Donald Trump to the Russian politician using that killer narrative. The host stated that Trump “would kill reporters if he could get away with it.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
