Don’t take Putin’s name in vain, Russia whines at Harris and Trump

Moscow’s miffed, again.

The Kremlin did not like how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name was mentioned during the U.S. presidential debate between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday evening.

Commenting Wednesday morning, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin’s name was being used as a tool in the United States’ internal political struggle.

“We really, very much do not like it, and we still hope that they will leave the name of our president alone,” Peskov said.

During the debate, Vice President Harris told former President Trump that Putin “would eat you for lunch” and that the Russian leader would be “sitting in Kyiv right now” if Trump were president, amid Moscow’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Trump replied that Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if he was in the White House instead of President Joe Biden.

Peskov said that the Kremlin did not have the opportunity to follow the debate. “But in the morning, of course, we saw news reports with different statements that were made during this debate,” he said. (The Kremlin previously said that Putin slept through the June presidential debate during which Trump trounced Biden.)

Putin raised eyebrows last week when he expressed a sarcastic preference for Harris to win November’s election. “She laughs so expressively and infectiously. That means that she is doing well,” he said.

This story has been updated.