Vladimir Putin has shared a scathing message for Joe Biden with regards to the US government's attitude to political dissent: "Don't be mad at the mirror if you are ugly".
The 68-year-old Russian president sat down for an interview with NBC's Keir Simmons on Friday, June 11 - his first appearance on an American-based network in three years.
Discussing a number of topics, Putin was asked about crackdowns on his political opponents in Russia, which has long drawn criticism from the West.
Putin has repeatedly been accused of human rights violations and suppression of opposition groups.
Indeed, the poisoning and imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny sparked outrage in much of the world, with President Biden issuing a warning to his Russian counterpart over Navalny's detainment at a NATO summit press conference.
However, Putin has paid little heed to this warning, instead accusing Biden of hypocrisy. In his NBC interview, he even compared the suppression of his political opponents with the arrests of Trump supporters protesters following the US Capitol riots in the US.
He said: "We have a saying: 'Don’t be mad at the mirror if you are ugly.' It has nothing to do with you personally. But if somebody blames us for something, what I say is, why don’t you look at yourselves? You will see yourselves in the mirror, not us."
It was then that Simmons pointed out that those arrested following the breach of the Capitol had, in fact, committed crimes such as trespassing and violent conduct - as opposed to merely having a certain political viewpoint.
Putin immediately hit back at the counterargument, saying: "Did you order the assassination of the woman [Ashli Babbitt] who walked into the Congress and who was shot and killed by a policeman?
"Do you know that 450 individuals were arrested after entering the Congress? And they didn't go there to steal a laptop. They came with political demands."
Next week, it is expected that Putin will meet with Biden face-to-face for the first time since the American president took office in January. The two leaders are set to discuss a range of issues in Geneva, Switzerland.
