Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said that only an "old or sick man" would behave the way US President Joe Biden did in Poland on Saturday when he once again assailed the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin.
“I’ve said this before, and now I’ll repeat it: only a weak or sick person can behave like this. Psychiatrists will explain the reason for such behavior more professionally. From a man's point of view, it's the weak who behave this way. US citizens should be ashamed of their president," Volodin said, commenting on Biden's harsh remarks about Putin.
On Friday, Biden headed to Poland, the final destination of his European tour, after taking part in an extraordinary NATO summit over Russia's military operation in Ukraine. Speaking to reporters during his meeting with the Ukrainian refugees on Saturday, Biden called Putin "a butcher".
Volodin's sentiment was echoed by another State Duma member, Leonid Slutsky, who is also a member of the Russian delegation in the negotiations between Kiev and Moscow amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
"Biden's rhetoric is intolerable and unacceptable for a world leader. None of the US presidents allowed themselves such assaults. This, indeed, is borderline clinical," Slutsky said.
Biden earlier slammed Putin as "a war criminal" when speaking about the ongoing military operation in Ukraine launched by the Kremlin. This remark also received criticism from Russia, with Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov saying that such statements "go beyond common sense".
The Kremlin called the "war criminal" remarks unacceptable, especially when coming from the leader of a country with a history of killing hundreds of thousands around the world.
According to Moscow, the goal of the Russian military operation in Ukraine is to "demilitarise and de-Nazify" the country, with the Russian troops exclusively targeting military infrastructure and posing no threat to civilians.
Western countries have condemned the military operation, with the United States being among the most vocal critics. They have called Moscow's actions in Ukraine an invasion and imposed harsh sanctions targeting the Russian economy, financial sector, culture, sports, media outlets and many other things.