New Delhi: US Senator Lindsey Graham has stirred a controversy after he called for Russian President Vladimir Putin's assassination to end the Ukraine war.


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Graham, a former Air Force lawyer and longtime defence hawk, said that the only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to "take this guy out". 


He asked whether there is a Brutus or a "more successful" Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military. Julius Caesar, a Roman general, was assassinated by Brutus while Colonel Stauffenberg, a German army officer, had attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944.


"Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country - and the world - a great service," the South Carolina Senator wrote in a series of tweets on Friday (March 4, 2022).


He added, "The only people who can fix this are the Russian people. Easy to say, hard to do. Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step up to the plate." 



Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said that it is "not the position of the United States government."


On Friday, Psaki dismissed Graham's idea out of hand.


"That is not the position of the United States government and certainly not a statement you'd hear come from the mouth of anybody working in this administration," she said.


Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, called Graham's comments "unacceptable and outrageous".


The Russian president's raising of the alert level on his country's nuclear weapons stirred fears that he may be willing to consider the unthinkable step of using them.


The US has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine and hasn't agreed to a no-fly zone over Ukraine that could lead to clashes with Russian warplanes.


(With agency inputs)


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