According to US President Joe Biden, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin misjudged his war of aggression against Ukraine. “I think he’s a rational actor who has miscalculated significantly,” Biden said in an interview, according to TV channel CNN.
Accordingly, Biden said that while he believes that Putin is acting rationally, his goals in Ukraine are irrational. “If you listen to the speech he gave after the decision (to wage war on Ukraine), he talked about the whole idea that he was needed to lead a Russia that would unite all Russian speakers. I mean, I agree just for irrational,” Biden said, according to CNN.
Biden further said that Putin had wrongly assumed that the Ukrainians would submit to a Russian invasion. “I think he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was Mother Russia’s home in Kyiv, and that he would be welcomed there, and I think he just miscalculated completely,” Biden said.