A diplomat working in Vladimir Putin’s government was incredibly dismissive when asked about the debate between the two US presidential nominees last night.
Former Republican president Donald Trump and the current vice president Kamala Harris, who is running on the Democrat’s ticket, went head to head for the first time on Tuesday.
Considering the last debate led incumbent president Joe Biden to drop out of the race altogether, the event attracted attention from around the world.
Trump was torn apart by Harris, and a CNN flash poll suggested the majority of debate watchers thought the Democratic nominee won.
But Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, downplayed the whole event when asked to comment.
She told Sputnik Radio: “To be honest, I don’t know why you think that’s big news.
“Is that big news that we could see yet another show performed by people who clearly take no responsibility whatsoever for their words?”
She said: “It’s strange to hear two people actually discussing how they will punish the entire world and for what.”
Zakharova claimed: “You should answer for your sins, at least for the second half of the 20th century, for a couple of decades.
“At least sort things out with yourselves in Afghanistan, with yourselves in Iraq. At least ask each other: ‘Have you managed to do anything anywhere without staining yourselves with blood?’”
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov previously said Putin had no plans to watch the debate himself.
The topic of the Ukraine war was one of the debate’s many discussion points.
Trump mentioned how Putin had endorsed Harris last week, saying: “I think he meant it.”
Only on Sunday, the Republican nominee said he was “very offended” the Russian president – whom Trump previously called a “genius” – had backed his rival.
It’s widely believed Putin was speaking ironically when he spoke in support of Harris, considering Trump is expected to be far less supportive of Ukraine than Harris if he were to be elected for a second term.
The former US president even refused to say if he wanted Kyiv to win the war during the debate, only saying that he wanted the conflict to end.
Harris, meanwhile, told Trump that Putin would “eat you for lunch”.
She said: “It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again, because they’re so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favours.”
The day after the debate, Peskov hit out at the US nominees for mentioning the Russian president.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, he said: “Putin’s name is being used as an instrument in the internal political tug-of-war in the United States. We are not very happy with this and we do believe that they will stop mentioning our president’s name.”