The Kremlin has hit back at the White House after vice president Kamala Harris called Vladimir Putin a “murderous dictator”.
The Democratic nominee, who is up against Donald Trump in November’s US presidential election, slammed the Russian president in a radio interview this week.
She criticised him earlier this week while discussing reports Trump sent the Russian president Covid tests at the height of the pandemic – claims the Republican nominee has denied, but Moscow says are true.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to Harris’ remarks with a fresh dig on Saturday, according to Reuters news agency and Russian outlets.
Peskov reportedly told a Russian TV interviewer: “The lofty political establishment of the United States of America, to all appearances, is infused with such a political culture.
“This is probably the quintessence of the very model of international relations that they are trying to foist on the entire world, a model that most in the world are beginning to like less and less.”
Russian state news outlet TASS also suggested Harris was following “the example of her boss”, Joe Biden.
The current US president has previously called Putin a “crazy SOB [son of a bitch]” and described him as “not a decent man” but a “dictator”.
Tensions between the US and Russia have been in decline ever since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.
The US, along with the rest of the West, has regularly supported Kyiv via investment and sending weapons to Ukraine.
For the most part, the West has tried to avoid being directly involved in a conflict with Moscow – and by cutting most diplomatic relations, Europe and the US have left Russia pretty isolated on the world stage.
Moscow has regularly attacked the West, and particularly the US, in retaliation.
Putin sarcastically endorsed Harris to be the next US president because of her “infectious laugh” last month, triggering the White House to tell Moscow to stop commenting on the US election.
The Democrats have also used Trump’s supposed friendship with Putin during the election campaign.
When slamming both Trump and Putin this week, Harris told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show: “I believe Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator.
“He admires strongmen and he gets played by them because he thinks that they’re his friends.
“And they are manipulating him full time and manipulating him by flattery.”
She added: “This guy who was president of the United States is sending them to Russia to a murderous dictator for his own personal use.
“This person who wants to be president again who secretly is helping out an adversary when the American people are dying by the hundreds every day and in need of relief.”