What did Biden mean about Putin in Warsaw?

What did the US president mean when he said in Warsaw that Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power"? On 26 March 2022, the remark drew attention within minutes, and a clarification followed almost as quickly.

The remark and the walk-back

In a speech in Warsaw, Joe Biden said the Russian president could not stay in power. As reported at the time, a senior administration official told journalists within minutes that the president's point was that Putin must not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. The official said Biden was not discussing Putin's power inside Russia, or regime change. The White House later issued a statement in the same terms.

The Kremlin responded by saying that the question of who leads Russia was a choice for the Russian people.

The surrounding diplomacy

The exchange came as the war, by then in its second month, was also being fought through talks and sanctions. On 24 March 2022, Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration, said progress had been made in the talks between Russia and Ukraine. He expressed "cautious optimism" that a ceasefire could be reached.

Belarus was another strand. On 24 March, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Belarusian troops were not willing to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine. The next day, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reaffirmed that Belarus had no plans to fight in Ukraine, while warning that it could join the war if aggression were launched against it. Also on 24 March, Australia imposed sanctions on Lukashenko and his family for supporting the Russian invasion. It also sanctioned 22 people it described as Russian propagandists and disinformation operatives, including senior editors at Russia Today and figures linked to the Strategic Culture Foundation, InfoRos and NewsFront.

Why the episode mattered

The clarification showed how carefully Washington wanted to separate its stated aim of limiting Russian power over neighbouring states from any suggestion of seeking a change of government in Moscow. The Kremlin's reply, for its part, framed the matter as one for Russians alone. With Ukraine's leadership signalling cautious hope on negotiations, the wording of the US position was therefore scrutinised closely.