US PRESIDENT JOE Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “crazy SOB” at a public fundraising event yesterday which the Kremlin decried as “shameful”.

The 81-year-old leader has regularly had harsh words for Putin since Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine two years ago, including calling him a “butcher” and a “war criminal”. 

Yesterday he was no less direct.

“We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin, and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate,” Biden said in a brief speech at the event in San Francisco attended by a small group of reporters.

Biden has said the United States will announce a package of tough new sanctions Friday against Russia over the death in prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Biden’s invective was “a huge shame for the country itself… for the US.”

“If a president uses that kind of language, it’s shameful,” he said.

“It is clear that Mr Biden is demonstrating Hollywood cowboy-style behavior to serve domestic political interests,” he continued.

France claims air space under threat

Russia has also come under fresh criticism from the French government.

France’s air force pilots have been threatened with attack by Russian forces during patrol missions in international air space in a sign of rising tensions, French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said today. 

Russia had tried to “take control” of French air force and navy patrols, he told the broadcaster RTL, adding that Russia was “pushing the limits” with such behaviour.

“A Russian air traffic system threatened to shoot down French planes over the Black Sea” that were patrolling in international airspace at the time, Lecornu said.

“You have Russian operators threatening French pilots with the shooting down of their aircraft,” he said.

The incident took place a “month ago” but his ministry later said it had actually happened in November and involved a French AWACS aircraft specialising in airborne control and detection operations.

“It was a particularly aggressive radio exchange,” a ministry spokesperson said, calling such an intimidation attempt in that particular area was “a first”.

In a separate incident, a Russian warship was detected near the Bay of the Seine, an inlet of the English Channel on France’s Normandy coast, Lecornu said.

Although the Russian vessel was in international waters, “it was as if it had come to intimidate France”, he said.

His remarks are the latest in a string of French accusations of aggressive Russian behaviour, including alleged cyberattacks and propaganda directed at France.

Such incidents were “as old as the Cold War”, Lecornu acknowledged, but warned that “Russia is pushing the limits in terms of aggressive behaviour”.

UK imposes new sanctions

Meanwhile, the UK government is targeting Russia with new sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. 

The British Government announced more than 50 new sanctions against Russia today to mark the second anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which falls this weekend.

The sanctions target munitions manufacturers, electronics companies, and diamond and oil traders and aim to “diminish” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s weapons arsenal, the foreign office said.

They also seek to cut off funding for Russia’s war by clamping down on metals, diamonds, and energy trade – key sources of Russian revenue, the ministry added.

“Our international economic pressure means Russia cannot afford this illegal invasion,” British foreign minister David Cameron said in a statement.

“Our sanctions are starving Putin of the resources he desperately needs to fund his struggling war.”