The Kremlin announced it is recalling its U.S. ambassador for consultations in response to Joe Biden’s remarks about Putin made during his interview George Stephanopolous. It turns out that Putin doesn’t appreciate the American president calling him a killer. The Russian ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, will consult with the Kremlin and analyze what the next move should be and where to go in their relationship with the Biden administration.

When a country recalls its ambassador from a foreign assignment, the move usually doesn’t amount to much. The announcement sounds dramatic but typically results in talks between the country and its ambassador to regroup and make sure they are all on the same page. In this case, Putin is using the gesture to demand an apology from Biden. Will that happen? Of course not. Even Sleepy Joe isn’t dumb enough to apologize to Vladamir Putin. Biden did prove, though, that he is lacking in diplomatic skills. Isn’t that something that the Democrats consistently criticized Trump about during his time in office?

Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he thought Putin is a killer. Biden said, “I do.” That was a real hardball question from the former Clinton aide, right? Biden told Stephanopoulos that Russia will pay a price for meddling in the U.S. election and such actions as placing bounties on U.S. troops, and the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. ‘We had a long talk, he and I. I know him relatively well and the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred then be prepared.’ The Commerce Department announced Wednesday that it is increasing sanctions on some Russian exports in response to Navalny’s poisoning, specifically aviation and space equipment. These are not new sanctions, they are the ones the Trump administration put in place against Russia. Biden is just taking the sanctions further.

When pushed on what the consequences would be, the president said: ‘The price he’s going to pay, well, you’ll see shortly.’

Biden said he wouldn’t reveal exactly what consequences he would levy, but did indicate it is in America and Russia’s ‘interest to work together’

The national intelligence director’s office released a declassified report that finds President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations in support of Trump in last November’s presidential election. Biden said Russia will pay a price for that.

Fueling the rising tensions is a startling new assessment by U.S. intelligence that lays out Russia’s campaign to influence the 2020 elections – on the heels of the Treasury Department slapping sanctions on officials as retaliation for the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny with a chemical agent. Among those hit with sanctions was the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the FSB.

It even said proxies for Putin himself pushed ‘misleading or ‘unsubstantiated’ allegations about Biden during the campaign. Some of those attacks were amplified by President Trump, who regularly went after Biden for ‘corruption’ and brought up Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine, and who the intel report assessed Russia preferred in the election.

Biden is trying to draw a sharp line between how he will handle Putin and how the Trump administration handled its relationship with Putin. Biden wants to establish himself as tough on Putin after criticizing Trump for too cozy of a relationship with the Russian president. After all, it was the Russia, Russia, Russia cry from the bogus Steele dossier that gave the Democrats a reason to claim Trump as Putin’s puppet. Russian interference in American presidential elections isn’t anything new. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted as much and said Biden won’t
“look the other way.” He’ll be stronger with Russia than the bad Orange Man was, you know.

‘The president’s relationship and this administration’s relationship with the Russians will be very different from what we’ve seen over the last four years – and we’ve already seen evidence of that from his first phone call with President Putin,’ White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told DailyMail.com during a press briefing on Wednesday.

‘President Biden has been clear that the United States will also respond to a number of destabilizing Russian actions,’ she continued, adding there are several new investigations related to relations with the Kremlin.

‘The Russians have intervened, or attempted to intervene, in elections for many years – I mean, long before 2016. We certainly are eyes-wide-open about that and fully aware of that,’ Psaki said.

‘We are not going to look the other way, as we saw a bit over the last four years, and we will continue to press them on their actions,’ she continued in reference to election interference and allegations of poisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Too bad there wasn’t this kind of commitment against the moves of Putin during Biden’s days in the Obama administration when Russia annexed the Crimean Penisula in 2014. Biden even reached back to the George W. Bush administration to pump himself up on how he’ll handle the likes of Putin.

A bit earlier, the ABC anchor pointed out: ‘You said you know he doesn’t have a soul.’

‘I did say that to him, yes,’ the president affirmed.

‘And his response was, ‘We understand one another.’ I wasn’t being a wise guy. I was alone with him in his office. That’s how it came about,’ he described.

‘It was when President Bush said he looked in his [Putin’s] eyes and saw his soul. I said, ‘I looked in your eyes and I don’t think you have a soul.’ He looked back and said, ‘We understand each other.”

Biden continued: ‘Look, the most important thing in dealing with foreign leaders in my experience and dealt with an awful lot over my career is just know the other guy.’

Unfortunately, Joe Biden has a record of being historically wrong in foreign policy during his almost 50 years in Washington. So far, he isn’t off to a great start as president. There isn’t much reason to think he’ll be able to handle Putin better than any of his predecessors. He’s just following Trump’s playbook on hitting Russia with sanctions.