The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced that the US administration has rejected a proposal for a public debate between the leaders of the countries • It was also reported that President Putin will soon be vaccinated against the corona
Russian President Vladimir Putin // Photo: Reuters
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced today (Monday) that US President Joe Biden has rejected a Russian proposal to hold a public debate with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
A State Department statement said: "This is another missed opportunity, the responsibility for the continued deterioration of relations rests exclusively with the United States."
The Russians proposed bilateral talks between the leaders live.
"We are very sorry that the American side did not support the Russian President's proposal to hold a discussion on the problems in relations between the two countries as well as on issues related to his strategic stability," the State Department said in a statement.
Putin suggested the conversation would follow a difficult exchange between the leaders.
Tensions began after Biden called the Russian president a "killer" in an interview with the American television network ABC and promised that the Russian president would "pay, for interfering in the Russian election campaign.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that he will be vaccinated tomorrow, March 23, against the corona virus.
He said, "The vaccine is a voluntary choice of each person, his personal decision. By the way, I myself intend to do it (vaccine) tomorrow," he said today at a meeting on increasing the production of vaccines against the corona virus.
A spokesman for the president, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin would be vaccinated with one of the three Russian vaccines, but did not reveal exactly which one, saying "everyone is good and safe."
Peskov added that Putin's immunization would not be a public event, as politicians in other countries have done.
Peskov also said that the demand of the Russian public for vaccines is high.
Russia added that experiments with the Sputnik Five vaccine as droplets will soon begin and that the vaccine is expected to end this summer.
