TAKE AWAY:
- President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin talked for about four hours.
- Biden says he told Putin his agenda is "not against Russia" but "for the American people".
- Biden told Putin he will continue to raise concerns about human rights violations.
- Biden and Putin agree at the summit to return respective ambassadors.
- Putin deflects questions about treatment of dissidents, invokes BLM and Jan. 6 attack.
- Putin refused to use Navalny’s name, referring to him as “this person” and blamed the opposition activist for his own arrest.
- Putin says his relationship with Biden is ‘pragmatic’ while praising U.S. president’s values.
- Putin suggests a prisoner swap was discussed but not resolved.
President Joe Biden summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the lakeside Villa La Grange in Geneva ended Wednesday evening after about four hours. between the and their aides.
Biden opened the summit by describing the U.S. and Russia as "two great powers," marking a promotion of Moscow's status on the world stage as the pair began lengthy talks on a range of subjects including cyber attacks and human rights concerns.
After about 90 minutes in the first round of talks that included top diplomats for both countries, Biden and Putin moved into an expanded bilateral meeting with their delegations. Biden noted it was "always better to meet face-to-face" and Putin added he hoped the meeting would be "productive."
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| President Biden and President Putin in Geneva |
Both Putin and Biden faced reporters at separate press conferences before the U.S. president concludes a week-long European trip that included meetings with Group of 7, European Union and NATO allies.
After meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Joe Biden said the two leaders "share a unique responsibility to manage the relationship between two powerful and proud countries, a relationship that has to be stable and predictable."
"Where we have differences, I want President Putin to understand why I say what I say, and why I do what I do, and how we'll respond to different actions that harm America's interests. I told President Putin my agenda is not against Russia or anybody else. It's for the American people," Biden said.
The US President said his agenda includes fighting Covid-19, rebuilding the US economy, re-establishing relationships around the world with allies and protecting Americans.
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| President Biden during press conference in Geneva |
US President Joe Biden said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin "human rights is always going to be on the table."
"It's not about just going after Russia when they violate human rights, it's about who we are," Biden said.
Biden said he "made it clear" to Putin that he will continue to speak out against cases where there are human rights violations concerns.
"I pointed out to him, that's why we are going to raise our concerns about cases, like Alexei Navalny. I made it clear to President Putin, and will continue to raise issues of fundamental human rights, because that's what we are. That's who we are," he said.
The two superpowers agreed at their first summit to return ambassadors to each other's capitals after they were withdrawn earlier this year.
President Putin said, “we’ve reached an agreement that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the U.S. State Department would begin consultations on the full range of interaction on the diplomatic track."
Putin could not say when this would occur but said the timing was merely a “technical issue” and that the ambassadors would return to “permanent service.”
The top diplomats representing each country, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov and U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan have been back in their home countries for the last several months amid tensions between the two powers.
He also said Russia and the United States shared a responsibility for nuclear stability, and would hold talks on possible changes to their recently extended New START arms limitation treaty.
Both sides had said in advance that they hoped for more stable and predictable relations, even though they were at odds over everything from arms control and cyber-hacking to election interference and Ukraine.
Putin dismissed questions about Russia’s treatment of Alexei Navalny and instead referenced discord in the United States, specifically the Black Lives Matter movement and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“America just recently had very severe events after well-known events, after a killing of an African American and an entire movement developed known as Black Lives Matter,”
Putin said. “What we saw was disorder, destruction, violations of the law, etc. We feel sympathy for the United States of America, but we don’t want that to happen on our territory, and we’re doing our utmost in order to not allow it to happen.”
He also suggested that the United States was silencing dissidents, referring to the arrests of suspects in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
“As for who is killing whom or are throwing whom in jail, people came to the U.S. Congress with political demands,” Putin said. “Over 400 people had criminal charges placed on them. They face prison sentences of up to 28, maybe even 25 years. They’re being called domestic terrorists.”
Putin then referenced Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot Jan. 6 when she ignored warnings and tried to crawl through an opening in a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby, which is the hallway outside the House chamber.
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| President Putin during a press conference in Geneva |
“One person was simply shot on the spot by the police, although they were not threatening the police with any weapons. In many countries, the same thing happens that happens in our country,” Putin said. “I’d like to stress once more that we sympathize with what happened in the United States, but we have no desire to allow the same thing to happen in our country.”
Earlier, answering a direct question about the poisoning of Navalny, Putin blamed the opposition activist for his own arrest, saying he had returned to Russia from Germany despite knowing there was a warrant out for him.
Putin refused to use Navalny’s name, referring to him as “this person.”
Putin called his relationship with Biden “pragmatic” while praising the American president’s values during a news conference following their conversation in Geneva.
“If you ask me what sort of a partner … Biden is, I’d say he’s is very constructive,” Putin said. “He’s very balanced — just the way that I expected. He’s very experienced. You can tell that at first glance.”
The Russian leader said he and the U.S. president “spoke the same language” and noted Biden’s character following their first meeting since Biden’s inauguration.
“He talked about his family — calling them,” Putin said. “He talked about what his mom said, you know, these important things … but it shows the extent of his moral values.”
“And that’s all quite attractive,” he added. Putin said the two men did not exchange invitations for either to visit in Moscow or Washington. “President Biden did not invite me as his guest,” he said. “I didn’t invite him either. I think for visits like that, for meetings like that, you need to have the proper conditions. You need to be ready.”
Putin said he does not recall an exchange between him and the then-vice president a decade ago that Biden has mentioned previously. Biden said during a meeting with Putin at the Kremlin, he looked into the Russian leader’s eyes before telling him, “I don’t think you have a soul.”
But Putin didn’t argue that the exchange didn’t happen. “As for the soul, seeing it or not seeing something, well, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this,” he said. “Frankly speaking, I don’t recall this conversation, but I will allow that it happened and escaped my attention.”
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