US President Joe Biden called on Republicans to unblock aid to Ukraine and warned that if Russia wins the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stand by and attack NATO. Moscow denounced the American’s “provocative rhetoric” and stated that it is the US and its military industry that benefit from the war.

“If Putin conquers Ukraine, he won’t stop,” Biden told members of Congress, warning that Russia will attack a NATO ally and then “we will have something we weren’t looking for and we don’t have today: American troops are fighting Russian troops.” And he insisted: “We can’t let Putin win.”

Moscow did not like the statements. Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov responded on Telegram. “In an attempt to add fuel to the fire of the proxy war in Ukraine, they completely lost touch with reality and easily talked about the possibility of a direct confrontation between the armed forces of our countries,” he said. “This kind of provocative rhetoric is unacceptable for a responsible nuclear power,” he added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also responded to Biden’s statements. “We deeply regret that American leaders continue to use Russia as a tool in their domestic politics,” he said. “And in this particular case, they are engaged in an absolutely blatant demonization of our country to manipulate their Congressmen and Senators to continue burning American taxpayers’ money in the furnace of the Ukrainian war.”

Biden’s call made no sense as Congress hours later rejected the 97.5 billion euro package for aid to Ukraine (and Israel) – the Republicans want to include more money in the proposal to stop immigration at the border with Mexico . The White House warned this week that it has run out of money to help the Ukrainians.

Scheduled elections

Russian election authorities have announced that presidential elections will take place on March 17, in which the four occupied regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed last year are expected to be able to participate. The final decision should be made within a week.

Putin has not yet officially announced whether he is a candidate or not, but he is expected to seek his fifth term to remain in power until 2030. Opponent Alexei Navalny, who is in prison, called for people to vote for anyone but Putin.

The Russian president received his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, at the Kremlin on Thursday, highlighting the “good moment” in relations between Russia and Iran.

With agencies