MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - U.S. President Joe Biden's speech, in which he said that the Russians are not an enemy, can only be welcomed, but Russia would prefer it if such remarks did not contain threats, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Biden said on Tuesday that the U.S. does not see Russia as its enemy. "We do not seek to destabilize Russia. To the citizens of Russia: You are not our enemy," Biden said.
"There is nothing untoward about it. Probably, one can welcome the fact that the president of the U.S., which is one of the world's largest countries, one of the most powerful states, thinks this about the Russians," Peskov said.
"Probably, it should appeal to us," he said.
"But we'd prefer not to listen to various sorts of threats as to what would happen to us if we did something that we have no intention of doing," he said.
These threats sound like some sort of mantra, Peskov said.
"We have pretty much grown tired of them. If we heard such messages that would be free of threats, the Russian people would probably like them much more," he said.
"And, of course, this speech would be even more appealing if the U.S. president also addressed the Ukrainian people and called on the Ukrainian people to never shoot at each other. That would be really great," Peskov said.