Joe Biden held his first merging as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin Wednesday in a get - together that seems to have start surprisingly well .
During a three - hour sit - down at a crest in Geneva , the world leaders apparently had a far - cast conversation in which they discussed human rights , cybersecurity , and how to move forward while pursuing “ mutual interest . ”
Given the event of the past few years , one could ’ve guess it would be hard to find that sort of common ground — and that Wednesday ’s conversation would ’ve been infernally inapt . Just to refresh : The late U.S. president was widely accused of basicallybeing a sleeper agentfor the Russian government — a bad actor in an apparent patch to bring down our majority rule . Said regime was also accused of having tamper in American elections ( twice ! ) . There have also been ongoing reports from the U.S. intelligence residential area ofdisinformation campaignsand cyberattacks emanating from within the Kremlin ( or , at least , from inside Russia ’s borders)—the likes of which includethe widespread SolarWinds espionage campaignthat on the face of it compromised dozens of U.S. companies and numerous Union bureau .
Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP (Getty Images)
And yet somehow thing went pretty swimmingly on Wednesday .
“ The tone of the entire meeting was good , positive , ” Biden said in a closet league following the meeting , and Putin seemed to agree .
“ There has been no hostility , ” the Russian Chief Executive said at his own press event . “ On the contrary , our coming together film place in a constructive liveliness . ”
Biden even apparently give Putin some present tense . The Washington Post reportsthe United States President gifted the Russian tyrant with a pair of his dear aviators , as well as a crystal statue of an American bison . Weird !
Odd gifts aside , Wednesday was n’t without its frictions — though they mostly occur during Biden ’s post - meeting press appearing during which he fielded question from a cell of mixed-up journalists . reporter seemed to need to sleep with why , after four years of rail against Trump ’s cozy relationship with the Kremlin and objurgate Russia as a threat to American republic , No . 46 seems to now want to kick things off with such a pally , conciliatory attitude . One Associated Press reporter put it this way :
AP REPORTER : “ U.S. intelligence activity has tell that Russia examine to interfere in the last two presidential election and that Russian groups are behind political hack like SolarWinds and some of the ransomware attempt you just name . Putin , in his press conference just now , accepted no responsibility for any misbehavior . Your precursor choose not to demand that Putin arrest these disruptions . So what is something concrete , sir , that you achieved today to prevent that from happen again ?
Biden did n’t really have a great response for that , tender that — unlike with Trump — Putin knows that “ there are consequences , ” he said . “ He knows I will take action at law . ”
The two leaders seemingly discussed some possible strategy for cybersecurity moving forward — though the contingent were n’t immediately manifest . “ I utter about the suggestion that sure critical infrastructure should be off terminal point to attack , period . By cyber or any other mean value , ” said Biden , explaining that he had presented Putin with a list of the 16 sectors deemed “ critical substructure ” by the U.S. Those included “ telecommunication , healthcare , food and muscularity , ” and others .
“ Principle has to be backed up by practice,”Biden offeredat one point . “ Responsible res publica call for to take action at law against criminals who carry ransomware activities on their territory , ” he say , while remaining vague on the specifics of what that “ action ” would be .
Unless we want to live out the rest of our days in subterraneous fallout shelters , it behove our country to wield good ties with other nuclear world power — so it ’s not a high-risk thing that U.S.-Russian relations stay solid . That does n’t make Biden ’s folksy “ shrug emoji ” re : Putin not fairly suspicious given just how much shit Joe ’s mouth in the lead - up to this mo .
In March , Biden called Putina “ killer ” who will “ pay a Leontyne Price ” for his tampering in American democracy , apparently referring to on-going cyberattacks and the allege Russian incumbrance in recent presidential elections . On the campaign trail , he was even more vociferous , run heavily on claims that his rival , Trump , was“cozy ” with the Kremlinand incriminate that — by contrast — he would toy hardball with the Russian leader when he reached the White House .
deed over , all of the allegation about Putin ’s corruption and inauspicious reputeare genuine , though the ballooning of Russia ’s significance into some kind of global puppet - passkey subject of fake U.S. domestic politics and threatening to take over the world , are not . Serious analyst take issuance with theinterpretation of Russia as an challenging conquerer , with some claiming many of the country ’s actions are moredefensive againstWestern aggression than externally provocative of it .
That does n’t intend the image of Russia as a global bogeyman has n’t been vastly profitable for political leader in America . For the past few years , Democrats have fundamentally used Putin and Russia writ large as a political transparency to the values of the West , to handsome democracy , and to the Democratic Party . By inflating thestumbling petro - body politic - in - declineinto a fiery geopolitical adversary — and ordinate their political enemies somewhat cartoonishly with it ( Trump , many members of the GOPandothers)—they effectivelyscared the bejeezusout of many of their constituents , enough to get themselves elected ( or re - elected ) and to keep the political donations flowing . Conversely , Trump and the GOP have been just daft and craven enough to take the accusation of Putinism as some sort of weird compliment , launder them intoa bizarrely successful brand of sexual activity collection with their machismo - hungry , rightwing base .
Of course , now that Biden is in office , he clearly believe that reconciliation with a nuke - up oligarchy is probably better than a continued warfare of words and outbound belligerence — a reality that Putin has likely understood and counted on all along . As much as we might have cultural or honourable qualms with one another , political stableness and a lack of worldwide red region are goals Washington and Moscow can both agree on .
GovernmentJoe BidenPoliticiansPoliticsSOLARWINDS
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