MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. The decision of incumbent US President Joe Biden to pardon his son Hunter has severely damaged the authority of US presidential power, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's State Duma (the lower house of parliament), wrote on his Telegram channel.

"Biden's decision to pardon his son has tarnished the authority of US presidential power. It will take decades to restore it in the eyes of both US citizens and the entire global community," Volodin said.

Hardly an outgoing president of any other country could issue a decree for a full and complete pardon for his son, who is accused of committing several crimes, including serious ones, the Duma speaker noted. "By the way, earlier Biden had repeatedly said that he would never make such a move that would impede justice," Volodin emphasized.

Many states are constantly targeted with accusations for lacking US-style democracy and failing to defend human rights as the United States does, Volodin noted. "And these people teach the whole world about life. They tell us what constitutes a rule-of-law state, what does not, and what the standards for democracy and human rights should be. The world hears all of these things from the United States," Volodin added.

According to Joe Biden's written statement published by the White House on December 1, he had decided to issue a pardon for his son Hunter on two separate criminal charges, despite his previous repeated vows not to do so. These charges relate to the period from January 1, 2014, to December 1, 2024, and Hunter Biden’s federal gun charges in Delaware and federal tax evasion charges in California.