Wednesday's private meetings grant the President, who has sometimes stumbled in his messaging while in front of the press, the opportunity to confront Putin directly and without cameras.
When US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin gather for their highly anticipated summit in Geneva on Wednesday, it will come at a time that both leaders say is a low point for relations between their two countries. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, a joint press conference following the summit is likely not in the cards.
The summit comes some six months after the start of Biden's tenure in office, offering him the chance to set the tone for relations with the Russian leader in person following a contentious start to their relationship.Wednesday's private meetings grant the President, who has sometimes stumbled in his messaging while in front of the press, the opportunity to confront Putin directly and without cameras.
Now he faces questions about whether his past hardline rhetoric will match his administration's actions at the summit. Biden has recently had to defend his administration's decision to waive sanctions for Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline. And while Biden has agreed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky later this summer in Washington, the White House appeared to essentially turn down Zelensky's initial request for an in-person meeting ahead of the Putin summit.
Biden rarely has nice things to say about Putin 03:48"I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said during the press conference.Biden has long been skeptical about America's relations with with Putin. After former President George W. Bush met with Putin in Slovenia in June 2001, Bush said he looked him in the eye and got"a sense of his soul.
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