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Putin to take into account Biden’s 'provocative' visit to Kiev in his address — expert

Vladimir Zharikhin asserted that the American leader deliberately visited the Ukrainian capital one day before Putin’s address

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will take note of the provocative step by US President Joe Biden, who arrived in Kiev on Monday, when delivering his address to the Federal Assembly on February 21, Deputy Director of the Institute of CIS Countries Vladimir Zharikhin told a TASS correspondent on Monday.

"This is a provocative step on the part of Biden. It seems to me that he is going for an even greater exacerbation of relations. And I think that his behavior today will be taken into account when the address is delivered by the Russian president," he said.

The expert asserted that the American leader deliberately visited the Ukrainian capital one day before Putin’s address. "This is a provocative act as if presuming an indirect response by Russia. He challenged Putin with it," Zharikhin said, adding: "I think he will receive a response."

With his visit to Kiev, Biden also demonstrated that "all claims about possible talks on settling the Ukrainian conflict, about peace deals - all of it was just a smokescreen," the expert asserted.

According to Zharikhin, the actions by the US president also indicate that "radical aggressive forces in the US administration have clearly won at this stage." In this regard, the expert recalled the provocative behavior of other high-ranking US politicians. For instance, he said that the behavior of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation with Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), member of the CCP Politburo Wang Yi was "obnoxious and never-before-seen."

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Foreign policy Vladimir Putin Joseph Biden Russia's domestic policy

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