U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met amid what they agree is a “low point” in the U.S.-Russia relationship on June 16 in Switzerland.
The meeting took place for about three hours in an 18-century villa in Geneva, a city that once hosted the meeting of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the Cold War era.
Both then and today the leaders of the U.S. and Russia met up in a bid to cool down the tensions between the countries.
“I do not think he is looking for Cold War,” Biden said of Putin at his press conference following the meeting.
Among the reasons for the recent decline in relations are Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. elections, continuous cyber-attacks on the U.S., and March military buildup at Ukraine’s borders and in occupied Crimea, the largest since the beginning of the invasion in 2014.
Biden once again confirmed that he stands for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He added that Ukraine and Russia should commit to the Minsk agreements, a peace treaty signed in 2015, which has never been fully implemented.
Ahead of the meeting between Biden and Putin, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was disappointed that the U.S. counterpart did not meet him before sitting down with Russia’s leader.
During the phone call on June 7, Biden invited Zelensky to visit him at the Oval Office in July.
Neither Putin nor Biden invited each other to visit following the Geneva summit.
U.S. President Joe Biden holds a press conference after the US-Russia summit in Geneva on June 16, 2021. (AFP)
Speaking of Russia’s recent cyberattacks on the U.S., Biden said that he had handed Putin a list of 16 critical entities that must be off-limits to cyberattacks.
“I pointed out that we have the significant capability of cybersecurity. If he violates international norms, we will respond in a cyber way,” Biden said.
As for Russia’s interference in the U.S. elections, Biden said that such behavior “diminishes the standing of a country” that wants to be seen as a world power.
“His credibility worldwide shrinks,” Biden said of Putin.
Putin has neither taken responsibility for the U.S. elections interference nor for the cyber-attacks and added that the biggest number of cyber-attacks are launched from the U.S. soil.
Asked about how the U.S. would react if Putin’s fiercest critic Alexei Navalny dies in a Russian prison, Biden hinted at sanctions.
“When you run a country that does not abide by international norms, it hurts you,” Biden.
As always, Putin didn’t’ refer to Navalny by name, and said that by returning home from Germany, where the opposition leader was treated after being poisoned by a nerve agent, Navalny “wittingly acted the way to be detained.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L), US President Joe Biden (2nd L), Russian President Vladimir Putin (2n R) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) pose for press ahead of the US-Russia summit at the Villa La Grange, in Geneva on June 16, 2021. (AFP)
Prior to their meeting in Geneva, the countries took a few mutually unfriendly steps.
Biden has imposed sanctions on Russia for its cyber-attacks and election interference as well as other “harmful foreign activities.” Russia responded by charging two American marines with espionage and including the U.S. in its official list of “hostile” states.
Both U.S. and Russia expelled one another’s diplomats. Neither country has an ambassador in-country.
One of the results of the meeting was that the two leaders agreed to return the ambassadors back to work.
Why meeting ‘killer’?
In March, speaking to the media, Biden agreed that Putin was a “killer.” Russia’s leader hit back with a Russian equivalent of schoolyard rhyme: “I know you are, but what am I?”
Reflecting on Biden’s calling him a killer, Putin turned to whataboutism, mentioning U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Everything that happens in the country is the responsibility of its political establishment,” he added.
Biden said other things about Putin. In his own recollection of his previous meeting with Putin in 2011 — when Biden was a vice president and Putin was a prime-minister — Biden told his Russian counterpart that he does not have a soul. Putin said he does not remember this part of the conversation.
This time, Biden was more flattering. Before the meeting, he described Putin as “bright,” “tough” and “a worthy adversary.”
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin holds a press conference after the US-Russia summit in Geneva on June 16, 2021. (AFP)
Following the meeting, Putin said of Biden that he is “constructive and measured.” Putin also added that he found Biden’s values “attractive.”
Biden has faced criticism at home for sitting down for a chat with Putin at all — the meeting the U.S. president initiated himself.
After the summit, he addressed this and explained his motivation. He said “it was important to meet in person” to avoid misinterpretations.
When asked if he trusted Putin, Biden responded: “This is not about trust. This is about self-interest and verification of self-interest.”
Putin being Putin
Taking responsibility for crimes against political opponents, Russia’s military build-up on Ukraine’s borders, and cyber-attacks on the U.S., does not seem to be of interest to Putin.
He spent over an hour of his press conference time turning all the accusations back at the U.S.
Addressing criticism of persecuting opposition leaders in Russia, Putin brought up the January violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, when supporters of Donald Trump stormed the building attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential elections.
Five people died including one from a gunshot, one from a drug overdose, and three from natural causes.
Putin used this to criticize the U.S.: “We are sorry for what happened in the United States, but we do not want this to happen in our county.”
US President Joe Biden (R) talks to Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the US-Russia summit at the Villa La Grange, in Geneva on June 16, 2021. (AFP)
Biden’s administration announced the meeting with Russia’s president as an opportunity to “move towards a more stable and predictable relationship.”
Asked whether he is ready to become more predictable to improve Russia’s relations with the U.S., Putin replied that it is the U.S. that is being unpredictable.
“What is stable in supporting a coup in Ukraine?” Putin said, referring to the EuroMaidan revolution that ousted pro-Kremlin corrupt president Viktor Yanukovych to Russia in 2014. Russian state propaganda claims, wrongly, that the protests were an orchestrated coup.
“For the situation to be truly stable we need to agree on the rules of conduct,” Putin said, ignoring the international treaties already in place, like Geneva Convention and the Budapest Memorandum that Russia violates with its aggression towards Ukraine.
Asked to measure the effectiveness of his meeting with Putin, Biden said:
“You know, as that old expression goes, ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating.’ We’re gonna know shortly.”
