US President Joe Biden said strongly on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “could not stay in power”, but the White House later said it was not a call for regime change. “In the name of God, this man can not stay in power,” Biden said at the end of a speech at Warsaw Royal Castle. “The issue with the president is that Putin is not allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. “He was not talking about Putin’s rule in Russia or regime change,” said a White House official. Biden’s line that Putin “can not stay in power” was not in his prepared statements, a White House official said. U.S. officials have previously said that removing Putin from power was not their goal. “For us, this is not a change of regime. The Russian people have to decide who wants to lead them,” Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken said earlier this month. The Kremlin’s response: “This should not be decided by Mr Biden,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov.
