U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday that "autocrat" Vladimir Putin was right to say that relations were at their lowest point in years though he suggested that Russia might be weaker than it seemed and that Moscow had overreached in the Middle East. Asked why Putin, who has served as Russia's paramount leader since Boris Yeltsin resigned in 1999, had not changed despite years of Western sanctions, Biden quipped: "He's Vladimir Putin." Read alsoPending meeting with Biden, Putin wants "direct dialogue" with U.S.Biden, though, depicted Russia – whose economy is 13 times smaller than the United States – as weaker than it might be perceived.