Vladimir Putin’s state-backed Russia Today channel mocked Joe Biden for making the country’s leader a “boogeyman” during his State of the Union address.

       Mr Biden spent the first portion of his speech addressing Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine, which RT’s commentators said they found hard to understand.

       The Kremlin-backed network, which critics have branded Putin’s propaganda arm, continues to broadcast from Washington DC even as it has been banned in Europe and Canada.

       And before the speech began, the network ran a chyron which called it the “State of Disunion” address.

       In 2017, the US government required RT to register as a foreign agent, and its viewership is so small that Nielson does not bother to measure it.

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       “What was surprising with me was how he opened up the speech, it was very Ukraine and Russia. Leading with Russia was him kind of replacing Donald Trump, Russia was set up at the beginning of the speech as the boogeyman,” said conservative commentator Melik Abdul.

       “Not to say that he shouldn’t talk about it, but to really lead with ‘you know Russia is the boogeyman here’ it could have been done at a different point in the speech.”

       And panelist Ben Swann added that Mr Putin had replaced Mr Trump as the enemy for Democrats to attack.

       “The thing that surprised me most was what we did not hear, we did not hear the name Trump, he didn’t mention Trump at all. Russia replaced that,” he said.

       “Had this the speech happened four weeks ago I think we would have heard that name, but we didn’t now as there is a new name, Putin. Putin is that name instead, he is the bad guy that we all have to focus on.”