A Fawning Putin and a Stern Biden...?

"I want to say that the image of President Biden that our press and even the American press paints has nothing in common with reality,"

"He was on a long trip, had flown across the Ocean, and had to contend with jet lag and the time difference. When I fly it takes its toll. But he looked cheerful, we spoke face-to-face for two or maybe more hours. He's completely across his brief."

"Biden is a professional, and you have to be very careful in working with him to make sure you don’t miss anything. He doesn’t miss anything, I can assure you." 

Russian President Vladimir Putin

"We didn't need to spend more time talking. [I informed Mr. Putin that] we need some basic rules of the road that we can all abide by. I did what I came to do."

"[There was] no substitute for face-to-face dialogue, [I told him the agenda was] not against Russia [but] for the American people."

"This is not about trust, this is about self-interest and verification of self-interest [with a] genuine prospect [of improving relations]."

U.S. President Joe Biden

U.S. President Joe Biden (left) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin meet at the start of the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. (Denis Balibouse)

They're not strangers to one another, although relations between them have been strained; the cool distance between Washington and Moscow has been awhile brewing. President Biden's predecessor had a relaxed, somewhat warmish relationship with President Putin. The Democratic White House is aggrieved over what it believes was Russian interference in the election that brought Donald Trump to four years in the White House. Nonsense, Moscow responds.

The summit between them on June 16 was productive, in a cool, businesslike way, according to each of the participants. Despite that no feel-good, accomplishment-proud joint news conference took place after their frank discussions laying (almost) everything on the table. There were some 'don't go there' issues that each made clear were not up for discussion, and they weren't. Both accomplished politicians, actors, diplomats, smile on cue.

Vital issues like arms control and cybersecurity talks proceeded. The discussions were to have consumed between four to five hours. And to make certain that it was well understood that this was strictly business, no food to be served; water sufficed on this occasion. The exercise in 'airing it all' (almost) took much less time than anticipated; between two to three hours, so no hardship for either in threats of famishing penance.

Certainly the setting was conducive to feeling good, at the lakeside Villa La Grange in Geneva. In the end, 68-year-old Vladimir Putin, acquiesced to the 78 year-old American president, graciously putting the lie to early dementia capturing the older man's brain. To Mr. Biden's severity of purpose, Mr. Putin was less curt and dismissive in a notable role-reversal, expressing his confidence in his political adversary as a constructive, experienced discussion partner, speaking "the same language".

Reminiscent in part, of former U.S. President George W.Bush enthusing that looking into Vladimir Putin's eyes assured him that this was a man he "could do business with". But in the final analysis, was unable to. Relations between the two countries have been tense. The Kremlin came under fairly universal condemnation with its surprise annexation of Crimea and its military arming, training and fighting alongside ethnic Russian Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. An issue that Mr. Putin is rather prickly about; off-limits.

 

President Putin, briefing reporters following their discussion, and in lieu of the more generally accepted joint news conference spoke of the two sides making progress on shared goals, that the meeting had set aside hostilities as indication of the two leaders' wish to make an effort to understand the framework of the position each spoke from. It was "hard to say" whether relations would improve beyond a "glimpse of hope" that mutual trust might result.

 

The remaining distance between them expressed by the lack of geniality in each inviting the other to visit their respective capitals. According to Mr. Biden, much time was spent on discussions around arms control and cyber-attacks, when it was made clear by him to Mr. Putin that "critical infrastructure should be off-limits". As emphasis, he handed over a list of 16 strategic sectors to Mr. Putin, who undoubtedly has a similar list back home in Moscow. 

The impression was left with Mr. Biden that there was genuine concern of being "encircled", the belief by Mr. Putin that Washington planned to "take him down". And of course, Mr. Biden assured Mr. Putin that such was not the case; they just had to accommodate themselves to the practicality of getting along and pursuing their mutual interests in ensuring the good of the global community was uppermost in mind, primarily in restraints in arms control.

He did warn Mr. Putin, he said, of consequences should jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny expire in prison as a result of detention conditions; a situation that would prove to be "devastating for Russia". Both agreed without hesitation that Moscow and Washington shared nuclear stability responsibility; further discussions on altering the recently extended New START arms limitation treaty would be on the agenda.

Mr. Putin made it abundantly clear that concerns about Mr. Navalny's fate should rest solely with Russia and expanded Russia military presence close to the eastern border of Ukraine was also Russia's internal business. He laid to rest as far as he was concerned the very absurdity of Russian responsibility for a series of cyber-attacks in the United States. 

Although both Mr.Putin and Mr. Biden expressed the hope that more stable, predictable relations between the two countries might result prior to their meeting, it appeared somewhat obvious that the meeting itself did little to advance that prospect; cool, collected, remote relations. The irritants expressed on the U.S. side unresolved to its satisfaction, and guaranteed to remain so in the near future. "I'm not confident he'll change his behaviour", the last words on the matter by Mr. Biden.

President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrived to meet at the Villa la Grange on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland. (Saul Loeb)

"I watched Putin's press conference after the summit meeting, but since Russians have heard most of his lies and evasions for years, there wasn't much new for me. The foreign audience seemed shocked when Putin said Navalny had only himself to blame for consciously breaking parole by leaving the country -- even though Navalny was evacuated to Germany in a poison-induced coma. He also tried to justify the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 (which he used to deny) by arguing that it had introduced "stability" after the independent nation struggled to free itself from Putin's grip. Putin also denied responsibility for cyberattacks and blamed the US for being the biggest offender."

"These are examples of the absurd, reality-twisting nonsense Russians are fed 24-7 by the state-controlled media, and Putin was delighted to have the chance to spread it around the world. Had Biden wanted to send a real message to Putin, he would have met instead with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. Or with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leading opposition candidate in Belarus' sham elections last year, who is now living in exile after fleeing persecution by Putin's loyal servant Belarusian despot Alexander Lukashenko. Or Biden could have extended a White House invitation to the families of Putin's many victims."

Opinion by Garry Kasparov, CNN