Senator Lindsey Graham called for the assassination of President Vladimir V. Putin, saying in a television interview as Russian forces shelled a nuclear power plant in Ukraine that somebody in Russia should “step up to the plate” and “take this guy out.”

“The only people who can fix this are the Russian people,” Mr. Graham continued. “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.”  

In Russia, the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, described Mr. Graham’s statement as an instance of a “hysterical Russophobic fit” that had captured the United States. “These days, not everyone can keep a sound mind,” Mr. Peskov said. “Unfortunately, many people go mad.”

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