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Russia Demands Apology From Fox TV For Calling Putin A
Russia is not taking having their leader called a killer by U.S. media sitting down. It wants nothing less than an apology for what it calls "unacceptable" comments against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Fox News host Bill O' Reilly had an interview with President Donald Trump on Sunday, and when the conversation veered towards the controversial Russian leader, O' Reilly described Putin as a "killer".
Kremlin is unhappy with what it feels is a highly insulting description of Putin. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that his country would prefer getting an apology from Fox TV for its host's disparaging remarks against Putin. Peskov described Fox TV as a respected TV company.
In the interview with O' Reilly, Trump consistently maintained his respect for Putin, to which the broadcast journalist responded, "Putin's a killer". Trump shot back, " There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?".
Trump himself was criticized even by fellow Congressional Republicans for comparing how Russian and U.S. politicians behaved insisting the two groups are simply incomparable. Vice President Mike Pence in his own interview with NBC's Meet The Press came to the defense of Trump. Pence said the President is just really interested in forging better ties between the U.S. and Russia following the much-strained and hostile relations between the two powerful countries until the very end of the Obama administration.
Pence said that Trump's statements only show that he is willing to be critical of the past mistakes of the U.S. The Vice President also said Trump's sentiments should be seen as a sign of his strong determination to not let "semantics" or " arguments of the past" get in the way of moving forward with Russia and working well together with Putin in the days ahead.
Putin is accused by his political critics of ordering the killing of his political opponents. Putin and Kremlin both have gone to great lengths to strongly reject the allegations.