Biden: "We reached the highest point; It could lead to just a horrible outcome?"
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow would not reject that meeting.
Asked whether he would meet Putin at next month's Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, Biden said he didn't see a good reason for a sit-down.
"It would depend on specifically what he wanted to talk about," Biden said, adding if Putin wanted to discuss the jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner then he would be open to talking", Biden told CNN.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, he said that he does not believe that Putin will use nuclear weapons.
"I don't believe that. I think it's irresponsible for Putin to talk about it, this idea that the leader of one of the world's major powers is saying that he might use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine," Biden added.
"But look, he's acted brutally, he's acted brutally," Biden said. "I think he's committed war crimes. And so I don't, I don't see any rationale to meet with him now."
"I don't think he will," Biden said when asked whether the Russian leader would use a tactical nuclear weapon - a prospect US officials have watched with concern.
"I think it's irresponsible for him to talk about it, the idea that a world leader of one of the largest nuclear powers in the world says he may use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine," Biden added.
Biden said even Putin's threats have a destabilizing effect and warned of the potential errors in judgment that could ensue.
"The whole point I was making was it could lead to just a horrible outcome," Biden said. "And not because anybody intends to turn it into a world war or anything, but just once you use a nuclear weapon, the mistakes that can be made, the miscalculations, who knows what would happen", Biden said for CNN.
Biden...
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