Originally published 2021-03-20.
In March 2021, US President Joe Biden agreed in a television interview that Vladimir Putin was a "killer." Putin's reply came the next day: a schoolyard taunt usually translated as "he who said it, did it" (or "it takes one to know one"), followed by an offer to debate Biden live, online, within days. Russia also called its ambassador home from Washington for consultations. The White House declined the live-talks offer, and the two leaders eventually met in person in Geneva that June.
The exchange was a sharp, early test for a new US administration. Here is what was said, why it mattered, and how the row played out.
What Biden said on ABC
The comment came in an interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos broadcast on 17 March 2021. Asked whether he thought Putin was a killer, Biden answered: "Mm-hmm, I do." He also said Putin would pay a price for trying to interfere in US elections, and recalled telling Putin years earlier that he did not think he had a soul.
The timing mattered. A day earlier, the US intelligence community had published an assessment concluding that the Kremlin had tried to help Donald Trump in the 2020 election through influence operations, while finding no evidence that any foreign actor had altered votes. Biden's remarks were also widely read in light of the poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which Western governments blamed on the Russian state.
Russia recalls its ambassador
Moscow reacted quickly. The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Ambassador Anatoly Antonov home for urgent consultations, saying it wanted to avoid an irreversible deterioration in relations. Antonov landed in Moscow on 21 March. It was the first time Russia had recalled its ambassador to Washington since 1998, when it protested US air strikes on Iraq.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Biden's comments as very bad and unprecedented, and said they showed Washington was not interested in improving ties.
Putin's reply: a playground saying and an offer of live talks
Putin first responded during a video call marking the seventh anniversary of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. He said he would wish Biden good health, insisting he meant it without irony. He then reached for a phrase Russian children use in arguments, which roughly means that whoever calls someone a name is really describing themselves. Putin said the saying had a deep psychological meaning, because people tend to see their own traits in others.
He went on to argue that every country's history includes bloody events, and pointed to America's treatment of Native Americans and its history of slavery as examples, suggesting that US leaders were in no position to lecture Russia. He added that Russia would keep working with the US where it suited Russian interests, regardless of sanctions or insults.
Later the same day he went further, proposing a public conversation with Biden broadcast live in both countries, and suggesting it could happen as soon as that Friday. In his words, he wanted to continue the discussion "live, online, without any delays."
How the White House responded
Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden did not regret the comment. Asked about Putin's offer, she noted that the two presidents had already spoken by phone and that Biden would be travelling to Georgia the next day and had a busy schedule. In practice, that was a polite no.
The row came only weeks after the two governments had cooperated on arms control. In late January and early February 2021 they agreed to extend the New START treaty by five years, to February 2026. Contrary to some reports at the time, this was not a pact to stop building nuclear weapons: New START caps each side at 1,550 deployed strategic warheads and 700 deployed missiles and heavy bombers.
From insults to the Geneva summit
Relations got worse before they got better. In April 2021 the US imposed new sanctions on Russia over election interference and hacking, and expelled Russian diplomats; Moscow retaliated in kind, and the US ambassador in Moscow, John Sullivan, also returned home for consultations.
Even so, Biden had proposed a face-to-face meeting, and it happened on 16 June 2021 at the Villa La Grange in Geneva. The talks lasted about three and a half hours. The two sides agreed to return their ambassadors and to start dialogues on strategic stability and cybersecurity, but made no progress on Ukraine or Navalny. Putin afterwards called the talks constructive and described Biden as a tough negotiator. In June 2021 Putin also said he had been satisfied with Biden's explanation of the "killer" remark.
The calm did not last. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Biden went further, calling Putin a war criminal, and US-Russia relations fell to their lowest point since the Cold War. In February 2023 Russia suspended its participation in New START, and the treaty expired in February 2026 without a replacement.
Why words between leaders matter
- Personal insults have diplomatic costs. One sentence in a TV interview led to the first ambassador recall in more than two decades.
- Public debates are a tactic. Offering a live, unscripted exchange let Putin appear open to dialogue while knowing the White House was unlikely to accept.
- Whataboutism is a familiar Kremlin response. Pointing to another country's past wrongs is a long-standing way of deflecting criticism rather than answering it.
- Channels stay open anyway. Within three months the same leaders were meeting in Geneva, showing how quickly rhetoric and diplomacy can run on separate tracks.
Sources: NPR via VPM, 18 March 2021: "It takes one to know one," Putin says after Biden agrees Russian leader is a killer; CNBC / Reuters, 21 March 2021: Russian envoy to US back in Moscow; Wikipedia: 2021 Russia–United States summit; Wikipedia: New START; original reporting by Reuters.
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