U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday (June 13) that “dictator” Vladimir Putin was right to say that relations were at their lowest point in many years, although he suggested that Russia may be more than it seems. Weak, and Moscow has gone too far on the Middle East issue. .
Biden used the G7 summit held in the British seaside resort of Cabis Bay to argue that the world’s richest democracies are now facing survival competition with the “dictators” who define the 21st century.
After attending the NATO summit on Monday, Biden will meet Putin in Geneva on June 16. This meeting is expected to lead to fierce confrontations after controversies over espionage, hackers, election interference, Ukraine, Belarus, and human rights.
Biden called the former KGB spy a killer in March. He considered Russia’s behavior in a range of areas to be unacceptable, but he also pointed out Russia’s own “dilemma”-the post-Soviet economic collapse and what he called the excesses in Syria. Expansion and problems with COVID-19.
When asked why Putin, who has been the supreme leader of Russia since the resignation of Boris Yeltsin in 1999, has not changed after years of Western sanctions, Biden quipped: “He is Vladimir. Putin (Vladimir Putin)”.
“Dictators have tremendous power and they don’t have to respond to the public. The truth is, if I respond in the same way, as I would, it probably won’t stop him-he wants to move on,” Bye Denn commented on Putin.
These two former Cold War enemies have maintained a turbulent relationship for many years, although relations between the two countries deteriorated after Putin tried to rebuild some of the influence he lost in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and began to intervene in areas far beyond Russia’s borders. .
The United States and other Western leaders now see Putin and Xi Jinping’s China as their main strategic threat, even though the Kremlin believes that almost all the allegations against Russia are fictitious and say that the West is overwhelmed by anti-Russian hysteria.
The West portrays Russia as an autocratic thieves ruled by fickle elites who have participated in irresponsible deviant behaviors, such as the annexation of Crimea in 2014, attempts to intervene in the elections in the United States and Europe, and a series of High-profile overseas spies and assassination attempts.
Russia claims that Putin was democratically elected.
Russia’s “dilemma”
However, Biden described Russia — whose economy is 13 times smaller than that of the United States — as weaker than people think.
He said: “Russia has its own dilemma, dealing with its economy, dealing with COVID and dealing with problems in the United States and Europe and the Middle East.”
Biden said: “Russia has participated in activities that we believe violates international norms, but they have also solved some real problems, which will be difficult for them to solve.”
Biden cited Syria as an example, an area where the two major powers can work together to find “reconciliation.”
When asked about Russia’s statement, if Washington follows suit, Moscow will be ready to hand over cybercriminals to the United States, and Biden said this is a good sign and “progress.”
Biden said that Putin is correct that the relationship between the two countries is at a low point.
“He was right, it was a low point,” Biden said.
Biden said he told Putin before he was elected that he would investigate whether the Russian leader tried to interfere in the US election.
“I checked it so I can access all the intelligence and he was involved in these activities,” he said.
