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Biden confronts Putin at the tense Geneva summit – EURACTIV.com


President Joe Biden will draw a “red line” for President Vladimir Putin at the tense Geneva summit on Wednesday (June 16). The specter of the Cold War will be shrouded in the modern United States, which has become a gangster and authoritarian against Russia. Above the country’s worries.

The environment-a luxurious villa overlooking Lake Geneva-may be picturesque, but a difficult diplomatic standoff is waiting.

It is planned to start a 5-hour meeting at around 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) without a break for dinner. Putin will arrive first, then Biden, and Swiss President Guy Palmerin will be the host.

When asked whether the leaders of the two countries would share food together, a senior US official said that he would not.

“No bread will be broken,” he said, requesting anonymity.

After a long period of US-Russian negotiations, the choice of Geneva is reminiscent of the Cold War summit held in 1985 by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the Swiss city.

This time, the tension is not about strategic nuclear weapons and competing ideologies, but what the Biden administration considers to be an increasingly hostile and rule-violating regime.

From cyberattacks on American entities and interference in the last two US presidential elections, to human rights violations and aggression against Ukraine and other European countries, Washington has a long list of allegations against the Kremlin.

However, Putin argued at the summit that Moscow is only challenging the hegemony of the United States. This is part of the promotion of the so-called “multipolar” world, in which Russia and arguably the more powerful US adversary China are approaching.

Putin was originally scheduled to fly from Moscow to Geneva before meeting the President of the United States. Biden concluded his first intensive foreign visit as president, arriving on Tuesday after the summit with NATO and the European Union in Brussels and the G7 summit in the UK.

When asked if he was ready for Putin, Biden smiled and said, “I am ready at any time.”

optimism? ‘not much’

In an interview with NBC, Putin scorned the accusations of the dirty tricks of the United States abroad and the autocratic suppression at home.

In addition to denying any connection with the Russian-based hackers and ransomware groups that the United States said, Putin also refused to have any impact on the deaths of many opponents during his two decades in power.

When talking about one of the main stimulus factors for relations with Washington and the European Union, Putin insisted that he also cannot be blamed for Alexei Navalny’s near-fatal poisoning incident and subsequent imprisonment. He is One of the few remaining major opposition figures in Russia.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters in Moscow that US-Russian relations are “stalemate.”

He added that there is “not much” reason for optimism.

Senior Biden officials said that Biden’s team also did not want “a large number of deliverables.”

‘Worthy opponent’

Biden said that his main goal is only to establish a clear “red line” for the White House to no longer tolerate Russia.

“I am not looking for conflict,” he said in Brussels after the NATO summit, but “if Russia continues its harmful activities, we will respond.”

Biden, who previously described Putin as a “killer,” upgraded the Russian leader to a “tough” and “worthy opponent.”

After entering the summit, Biden emphasized that he had the support of Western partners.

Russia is one of the top topics of the NATO summit in Brussels. The Defense Alliance warned that Russia’s military build-up on the edge of Eastern Europe “increasesly threatens the security of the Euro-Atlantic region and intensifies NATO borders and overtakes.

But despite this, the White House and the Kremlin both stated that they are open to conducting business in limited ways. Officials pointed out that the recent extension of the Nuclear Arms Limitation Treaty under the New Disarmament Treaty is an example of successful diplomacy.

According to Russian and American officials, a possible baby step could be to quickly restore the posts of ambassadors of the two countries, who returned home this year due to tensions.

Officials on both sides said that Biden and Putin would initially only huddle with translators, as well as US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Then they will switch to a larger format.

However, unlike when Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump met Putin in Helsinki in 2018, a joint press conference will not be held in the end.

The US clearly wants to avoid sharing such a platform with the Russian president.

In 2018, when Putin stood by his side, Trump stated that when it came to the allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to bring Trump to power, he believed that the Kremlin leader trumped his own intelligence services. Caused a sensation.





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