Kremlin: Biden comment comparing Putin to Hamas is unacceptable

The Kremlin said on Friday that remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Palestinian militant group Hamas were “unacceptable”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the current moment was a potentially dangerous one, and that the threat to Russian citizens would grow exponentially once Israel started its expected ground operation in Gaza.

Israel says it wants to eliminate Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and which two weeks ago mounted an assault inside Israeli towns and kibbutzim that killed 1,400 people, mainly civilians.

In remarks on Thursday, Biden sought to compare Hamas’s actions to those of Putin, whose forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to annihilate a neighbouring democracy,” he said.

Peskov said that “such rhetoric is hardly suitable for responsible heads of state, and such rhetoric can hardly be acceptable for us; we do not accept such a tone towards the Russian Federation and towards our president”.

Peskov declined to say who would represent Russia at Saturday’s peace summit for the Palestinian conflict in Cairo, referring the query to the foreign ministry.

Israel has responded to Hamas’ attack with heavy daily bombardments of the enclave that have killed almost 4,000 people, Palestinian officials say.