A diplomatic gaffe by US President Joe Biden has probably provided his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a short-term boost as the Ukraine conflict drags on.
That was the view of Australian security expert Professor Simon Jackman, who spoke with Today this morning after Mr Biden said the Russian leader should not be allowed to remain in power.
"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Mr Biden said in an unscripted remark at the end of a speech in Poland on Saturday.
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Professor Jackman, chief executive of Sydney University's US Studies Centre, was speaking after Biden administration officials said the US has no plans to bring about regime change in Russia or anywhere else.
"It would have been like a scene out of a political drama," Professor Jackman said of the scrambling by US officials to clarify Mr Biden's remarks he made in Poland on the weekend.
"They are definitely walking this back."
In the short term, the US President's remarks would probably give a boost to Mr Putin's standings among the Russian public, Professor Jackman said.
He explained it played to Mr Putin's rhetoric that the US and NATO was aiming to destabilise Russia.
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It could also raise already high tensions between Russia and the West by pushing Mr Putin into a corner.
Professor Jackman said the controversial policy of regime change was a leftover from the administration of former president George W. Bush and had no place in the Biden administration.
The Kremlin dismissed Mr Biden's remark, saying it was for Russians to choose their leader.
