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Putin, who goes to the summit on June 16, has a similar goal, but at the same time he is glad to be on the same stage as the president of the United States, although he is accused of interfering in the elections and inciting a series Cyber Attacks.
Both parties agree that relations have plummeted to the lows seen after the Cold War, so a strategic friendship, as former President Donald Trump sought, or a significant advance in the nuclear sphere, such as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev did it. Putin has indicated that he will continue to maintain Russia’s position in Ukraine and put pressure on opposition leaders, while US sanctions on Russia remain in place.
Most importantly, Biden wants to anticipate even greater tensions with Russia, which could divert his attention from efforts to rebuild the US economy and focus his foreign policy potential on China, analysts say. Biden will have the opportunity to strategize with NATO allies in Brussels on Monday, following the weekend’s talks with G7 leaders in Cornwall, UK.
“J. Biden seeks a relationship that prevents Russia from preventing the United States from pursuing all the other foreign policy priorities it prefers to focus on, such as China, climate change and COVID, ”said Andrea Kendall-Taylor of the Center for a New American Security Expert. Senior Research Associate Group.
For Putin, “it is important to keep the United States as an opponent and to continue to demonstrate its ability to resist the United States,” he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that his country had “no excessive expectations or illusions” about the outcome of the talks. According to two sources familiar with the situation, state news channels have been instructed to avoid over-optimism in their coverage of the event.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, this meeting will not be a “moment of enlightenment” for both parties. Skeptical assessments of the possible outcome of the negotiations raise the question why such a meeting is taking place. The idea for the two leaders to meet is Mr. Biden. Republicans openly criticized the president for offering, in his words, such a gift to the Russian leader.
America’s strategy toward Putin is based, as some experts say, on the naive hope that after a long period of Russia’s disregard for U.S. demands to curb its actions and America’s response to sanctions, a face-to-face meeting will give Biden a chance. opportunity to create some credible deterrent against cyberattacks and will send a clear message to Putin: if he does not stop, he will face new sanctions.
“We hope to regulate these actions, which we believe are inconsistent with international standards,” Biden told reporters at a UK press conference on Sunday, acknowledging that autocrats have a lot of power and that it can be difficult to change their calculations. . “Where our cooperation is possible, perhaps we can do the same,” he said.
There are a number of areas in which the United States will seek Russia’s help or, if it fails, at least hope that Moscow will not actively obstruct its efforts. Mention should be made here of efforts to revive the Iranian nuclear deal, with Russia playing a key mediating role in the Vienna negotiations. The United States also hopes for Russia’s support in cracking down on Taliban violence in Afghanistan as US forces continue to withdraw.
One area where progress is expected is arms control. The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which limits the number of nuclear warheads held by Washington and Moscow, expires in 2026. The United States seeks to include in any new treaty all other strategic weapons not provided for in the previous agreement. Such negotiations take many years and should start as soon as possible if there is any possibility of renewing the agreement in any way.
But even now, both sides could take small steps to restore diplomatic ties that had broken down under the leadership of former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. US consulates in Vladivostok and St. Petersburg remain closed, and the issuance of visas to Russians wishing to travel to the United States has drastically slowed down. Many previous channels of communication between the two governments have been disrupted.
The “best hope” for US companies operating in Russia is that former Cold War enemies “decide to declare a ceasefire in diplomatic wars” so that consular services can resume, said Alex Rodzianka, director of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Moscow.
Time will be given to discuss regional conflicts in which Russia plays an important role, such as Ukraine, Syria and Libya. Putin will also seek Biden’s support for his idea of holding a meeting of the leaders of the five permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council: the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom.
But on many of Biden’s concerns, Putin has hinted that he is unwilling to compromise. In fact, it ignored a new round of sanctions imposed in April for a large-scale cyberattack by SolarWinds Corp. and allegations of election interference. A Russian court ruled last week that an opposition movement led by currently jailed dissident Alexei Navaln, who survived attempts to poison him, was an extremist organization.
Putin’s government intimidated the West by deploying forces on the Ukrainian border in May, and supported Belarusian leader Aliaksandr Lukashenko when the latter’s government ordered a passenger plane flying from Greece to Lithuania to Minsk airport to detain a journalist. who had flown there.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN on Friday that the main reason Putin was attending the summit was “poor relations between the two states” and the fact that the summit might be the only way to “avoid further degradation of our dialogue. “
The personal hostility of the two leaders is very different from that of Trump and Putin who admire each other. In an interview with ABC News, Biden said he agreed with the “assassin” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin, who has been meeting with the fourth president of the United States for a long time during his presidency, reacted: “He who says something else speaks for himself.” In an interview with NBC News in Moscow about the change of US presidents, he spoke vaguely, avoiding direct comment.
“This is a completely different type of person, and yes, he has advantages and disadvantages, but I hope the president of the United States does not take impulsive action,” Putin told NBC.
Despite Biden’s extensive experience as a politician, American officials in a private circle are concerned about a possible impression on the public: The summit is scheduled for the end of the eight-day trip, and the 78-year-old president is likely to be tired. Administration officials fear that Russian state media and Putin, 68, will try to emphasize Biden’s respectable age and take advantage of any possible misconduct.
White House officials said Saturday that Biden and Putin would not hold a joint press conference sounded like a sign that the United States saw no chance of reaching a deal with Putin. So Putin will be deprived of the opportunity to tap into his favorite public platform when he can take advantage of any flaws or weaknesses.
In addition, the possibility of a so-called “Helsinki Moment” by analysts is ruled out, a reference to the Trump-Putin summit in Finland in 2018, when Trump believed in a joint press conference that Russian military intelligence had not organized cyber – attacks during the presidential elections.
“Russia really doesn’t need stability,” said Fina Hill, who, under Trump, was the senior director for Russia and Europe Affairs at the National Security Council and is currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “He needs to rub shoulders with the United States for his own domestic purposes, and we have to admit that.
And about the task of the president of the United States, he said: “Just fix this yoval.”
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