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Joe Biden predicts Russia’s Vladimir Putin will ‘move in’ on Ukraine
- The US president says a third summit between the two leaders is ‘still a possibility’, and he is concerned that the situation ‘could get out of hand’
- Biden says he thinks Putin will try to test the West, but warns that Russia will face ‘disaster’ if it invades
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US President Joe Biden predicted on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a move on Ukraine and said Russia would pay dearly for a full-scale invasion, with its businesses possibly losing access to the US dollar.
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“My guess is he will move in,” Biden said of Putin at a news conference. “He has to do something.”
The Kremlin has massed some 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, a build-up that the West says is preparation for a war to prevent Ukraine from ever joining the Nato Western security alliance. Russia denies planning an invasion.
Biden said a third summit with Putin “is still a possibility” after the two leaders met twice last year. He said he was concerned that a Ukraine conflict could have broader implications and “could get out of hand”.
Speaking to reporters at length about the crisis threatening to engulf his presidency, Biden said he believed Putin would test Western leaders. The response to any Russian invasion, he said, would depend on the scale of Moscow’s actions and whether US allies squabbled over how to react.
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