US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday shook hands at a stately 18th-century mansion in Geneva, kicking off a high-stakes summit amid heightened tension between the two rival nations. Opening the summit, Putin said he hopes for a ‘productive’ meeting, while Biden stressed ‘it is always better to meet face to face.’
I know you’ve been on a long journey and have a lot of work,” Putin said.
“Still the US and Russia…relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest level meeting and I hope that our meeting will be productive,” he added.
Ahead of the meeting, Putin said last Friday that Russia’s bilateral relationship with the US has hit its nadir, noting that Biden is a “radically different” person than his predecessor, Donald Trump. During a press conference after the G7 summit in England, Biden admitted that the bilateral ties with the Kremlin are at a low point.
US-Russia relations have deteriorated for years, particularly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its intervention in Syria, and the alleged interference in US elections, a charge Moscow has denied. The strained bilateral ties further soured when Biden said he thought Putin was a “killer”, prompting Russia to recall its ambassador to Washington for consultations.
Both sides have played down the prospect of any major breakthroughs at the summit and the two leaders won’t hold a press conference standing side-by-side. When asked about why the US president didn’t choose to stand side-by-side with Putin and call out Russia’s disruptive actions, Biden said that it is not a “contest about who can do better in front of a press conference to try to embarrass each other.”
“We’re not expecting a big set of deliverables out of this meeting,” a senior US official told reporters, saying the duo are expected to talk for four or five hours.
Cyberhacking: Launched by criminal syndicates based in Russia, the recent spate of ransomware attacks cutting across sectors in the US has been one of the most critical issues for the Biden administration. The US president is expected to underscore Washington’s plan to respond to such attacks.
Election interference: A landmark report by the US intelligence community claimed that the Russian government meddled in the 2020 presidential elections, detailing a massive disinformation push in favour of Donald Trump. In October last year, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said that Russia had obtained voter information ahead of the presidential elections to influence public opinion. While Russia has dismissed these reports, Biden is likely to raise the concern with Putin during the marathon meeting.Human Rights: According to a CNN report, Biden will raise the issue of human rights but it is not confirmed whether the US president would discuss the opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was poisoned in a flight and was later jailed in Russia following his return from Germany after receiving treatment in Berlin.