With a dozen mentions in an hour and a half, Russian President Vladimir Putin was repeatedly cited by President Joe Biden and rival Donald Trump during Thursday’s presidential debate as they competed to show who was tougher on foreign policy.
“If we had a real president, a president respected by Putin, he would never have invaded Ukraine,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Biden, launching a series of clashes between the two candidates over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
“Go ahead and let Putin invade and control Ukraine, then move on to Poland and other places. You’ll see what happens. He has no idea what he’s talking about,” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Trump.
The question of how to end the war in Ukraine, the debate over US support for NATO and whether European countries are contributing enough to the effort to fight the Russian invasion have dominated discussions of the conflict.
For his part, Mr Putin has already expressed his indifference to the outcome of the election.
“Fundamentally, we don’t care who wins,” Mr. Putin said earlier this month when asked by Reuters whether he thought the outcome of the U.S. election would make a difference to Moscow.
“For us, the final result does not matter much. We will work with any president elected by the American people.”
When Americans go to the polls on November 5, many will be weighing foreign policy issues such as Ukraine and Israel against concerns closer to home about immigration, abortion and the economy.
Regarding Israel’s war in Gaza, Mr. Biden touted his ceasefire plan and said no one in the world had supported Israel as much as the United States.
“We saved Israel,” he said.
Mr Trump has reiterated that “Israel would never have been invaded by Hamas militants” if he had been president.
“He’s become like a Palestinian. But they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weakling,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Biden.
