Putin told he may have to wait for apology

Fox News television presenter Bill O’Reilly is refusing to apologise to Russian President Vladimir Putin after describing him as “a killer”.

“Apparently the Putin Administration in Moscow is demanding that I, your humble correspondent, apologise for saying old Vlad is a killer,” said O’Reilly on his television show broadcast yesterday. “So I’m working on that apology but it may take a little time . . . might want to check in with me around 2023,” he continued.

In comments carried by Russian state news agency TASS, a Kremlin spokesman had earlier said O’Reilly’s comments were “insulting and impermissible” and insisted Putin was due an apology from “such a respectable television network”.

O’Reilly, questioning President Donald Trump’s respect for Putin, said in an interview broadcast on Monday that “Putin’s a killer”. Trump replied: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?” Meanwhile, the Speaker of Britain’s House of Commons said yesterday that he strongly opposes letting Trump address Parliament during a state visit. Speaker John Bercow’s unusual public intervention makes it unlikely Trump will be given the honour during his trip later this year.

Bercow told lawmakers that he would have been against extending the invitation even before Trump’s temporary ban on citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations entering the United States.

He said that after the migrant ban was issued, “I am even more strongly opposed”.