Russian President Vladimir Putin has hit back after his US counterpart Joe Biden said in an interview that he considered him to be a "killer".
Russian President Vladimir Putin used a Russian school playground rhyme in a broadcast to respond to US President Joe Biden's comments. Photo: Alexei Druzhinin / Sputnik via AFP
"It takes one to know one," Putin said on Russian TV, and challenged Biden to talk to him live on air.
Putin rejects accusations that his security services tried to kill opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
The US president also told ABC News Putin would "pay the price" for alleged meddling in the 2020 US election.
Russia has called home its ambassador for talks to prevent the "irreversible deterioration" of ties.
The Russian government said Anatoly Antonov had been called back from Washington to Moscow as relations with the US had reached a "blind alley".
Biden had been commenting on an American intelligence report that suggested Putin had authorised an interference campaign in last November's presidential election in the US.
The report accused Russia of trying to sway the election in favour of former Republican President Donald Trump, who was defeated by Biden, a Democrat.
The US is expected to impose sanctions on Russia as soon as next week over the report's conclusions.
What exactly did Putin say?
Rejecting Biden's accusations, he used a Russian school playground rhyme, which literally translates as "whoever calls names gets called those names", and equates in English to "it takes one to know one".
"You know I remember in my childhood, when we argued in the playground we used to say, 'it takes one to know one'," he said in comments broadcast on state television.
"And that's not a coincidence, not just a children's saying or joke. It has deep psychological meaning. We always see our own traits in other people and think they are like how we really are. And as a result we evaluate [a person's] actions and give assessments."
Putin also accused the US of committing genocide against native Americans and exterminating civilians in World War II by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Later on Thursday, the Russian leader invited Biden to hold a live online conversation either on Friday or Monday.
An "open direct discussion" would be "interesting" for both the people of Russia and the US, he said.
Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the latest US accusations were not backed by evidence and would further harm bilateral ties.
Announcing the decision to recall its ambassador, the Russian foreign ministry said: "The most important thing for us is to identify ways of rectifying Russia-US relations, which have been going through hard times as Washington has, as a matter of fact, brought them to a blind alley."
What did Biden promise?
Biden told ABC he had warned Putin about a potential response to alleged election meddling during a call in late January.
"He will pay a price," Biden said in the interview, broadcast on Wednesday.
EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Biden told @GStephanopoulos that he agreed Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "killer" and will "pay a price" for interfering in U.S. elections. https://t.co/rIe2ms8sSv pic.twitter.com/VtAGCvF9hp
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 17, 2021
Asked what the consequences would be, he said: "You'll see shortly."
When asked if he thought Putin was "a killer", President Biden said "I do".
In a later news conference, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said relations between Russia and the US would be different than under the Trump presidency.
"Certainly the Russians will be held accountable for the action they've taken," Psaki told reporters.
Is this the first clash between Putin and Biden?
Ten years ago, when he was vice-president to Barack Obama, Biden met Putin at the Kremlin at a time when the Russian president was temporarily serving as prime minister.
"I said, 'Mr Prime Minister, I'm looking into your eyes, and I don't think you have a soul'," he recalled in an interview for The New Yorker a few years later.
"He looked back at me, and he smiled, and he said, 'We understand one another.'"
Russia's Vladimir Putin shakes hands with then-US Vice President Joe Biden during their meeting in Moscow on March 10, 2011. Photo: AFP
Before his election last year, Biden had also referred to Putin as a "KGB thug", referring to his past in the Soviet secret service.
What did the US intelligence report find?
The 15-page report, released on Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, outlined what it said were "influence operations" pushed by Russia as well as Iran.
It said Russian-linked individuals had spread unsubstantiated claims about President Biden ahead of the 3 November election.
It also said a disinformation campaign had sought to undermine confidence in the broader election process.
According to the US report, some people connected to Russian intelligence also pushed anti-Biden narratives to media outlets, senior officials and allies of Trump.
In response to the report, Russia's embassy in the United States said in a statement on Facebook: "The document prepared by the US intelligence community is another set of baseless accusations against our country for interfering in American domestic political processes.
"The conclusions of the report on Russia conducting influence operations in America are confirmed solely by the confidence of the intelligence services of their self-righteousness. No facts or specific evidence of such claims were provided."
-BBC
