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France 24
France 24
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Call for regime change? Biden departs from script to blast 'butcher' Putin

THE DEBATE © FRANCE 24

Did he go off script or was he on message? The Biden administration is partially rolling back what the US president said about Vladimir Putin at the conclusion of his Saturday speech in Warsaw. Washington insists it is not plotting or espousing regime change in Moscow, instead describing an "unworkable relationship" with the current master of the Kremlin.

Is this just a bit of hyperbole that will soon be forgotten as the world watches Russia bomb civilians and push its invasion of Ukraine? Or a moment as significant as when Putin issued a thinly-veiled threat of nuclear war last month to deter the West from intervening? We dust off the Cold War playbook to see what works and what does not.

More broadly, with Biden back in Washington and both sides digging in for a long war, we ask if anything can stop the nightmare that is unfolding and also how Russians themselves feel about it all.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Léopoldine Iribarren.

© Studio graphique France Médias Monde

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