Putin unlikely to watch State of the Union

Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely not watch President Biden’s State of the Union address tonight, CNN reports.

“The President usually does not watch TV addresses,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told CNN on Tuesday. “He prefers reading reports afterwards.”

Putin is expected to be a major focus of Biden’s first SOTU, which comes just days after Russia launched an invasion into Ukraine.

Advance excerpts from Biden’s speech provided by the White House suggest the president will take the opportunity to champion American diplomacy.

“Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson — when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” the remarks read.

Biden’s comments also refer to Putin’s war on Ukraine as “premeditated and unprovoked.”

The White House and other observers are sounding the alarm about the mindset of Putin, who seems poised to escalate the war, with attacks Tuesday reported on civilian targets. 

The president’s speech to Congress is slated to begin at 9 p.m. EST.