Putin’s reply to Biden calling him a killer, on Russian television, 18 March 2021

Putin To Biden: Despite All Attempts To Stop Russia’s Development, They Will Have To Reckon With Us!

The Western media reported half of this reply; read the complete transcript here.

‘As for the statement of my American colleague, we really, as he said, know each other personally.  What would I reply to him?  I would say, I wish you health.  I say that without any irony or joking intent.  Secondly, if we talked in more details about his subject, this is what I would say:  In the history of every nation, every state, there are many very difficult, dramatic, and bloody events.  But when you evaluate other people or even when we evaluate other states, other nations, we always seem to look at ourselves as in a mirror.  We see ourselves there.  Because we always see our own traits in other people and think they are like how we really are ourselves.  We are always projecting what is of importance for us, what is our essence, on other people.

And you know I remember in my childhood, when we quarrelled in the playground we used to say: ‘it takes one to know one’.  And that’s not a coincidence, not just a children’s saying or joke.  It has deep psychological meaning.  We always see our own traits in other people and think they are like how we really are.  And as a result, we assess a person’s activities and give assessments.

Regarding the American establishment, not the American people as a whole, most of them are honest, decent, and sincere people, who want to live with us in peace and friendship, we know this and value this, and we will rely on them in the future.    

However, concerning the American establishment, the ruling class, its creation happened in well-known and rather difficult conditions.  European conquest of the American continent led to extermination of indigenous population.  With genocide, as they say it today, direct genocide of Indian tribes.  Then followed a very tough, long, difficult period of slavery, a very cruel one.  All this goes through history, to this day accompanying the life in the United States.  Otherwise, where would the Black Lives Matter movement come from?  Black Lives Matter (in Russian).  Until now, African Americans face injustice and extermination.

Guided by such considerations, the ruling class of the USA resolves both domestic and foreign policy problems.  After all, the United States is the only country in the world that used nuclear weapons, moreover, against a non-nuclear state—against Japan, against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at the end of World War II.  There was absolutely no military sense in this.  This was a direct extermination of a civilian population.

Why am I talking about this?  Because I know that the United States, the leadership in the United States as a whole, is determined to have certain relations with us, but on those issues that are of interest to the United States itself and on its own terms.  Although they think that we are the same as they are, we are a different people, we have a different genetic, cultural, and moral code, but we know how to defend our own interests.  And we will work with them, but in those areas in which we ourselves are interested, and on those conditions that we consider beneficial for ourselves.  And they will have to reckon with it.  They will have to reckon with this, despite all attempts to stop our development.  Despite the sanctions and insults, they will have to reckon with this.

Well, having in mind our national interests, we will develop relations with all the countries of the world, including the United States.’