Published June 16, 2021 at 2:59 pm
Abroad. When Russian President Vladimir Putin meets his US counterpart Joe Biden in Geneva today, few believe that any constructive agreement will be reached. However, the two world leaders agree on one thing: That the relationship between their countries has not been this bad for a long time.
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On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden and Russian Vladimir Putin will meet in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting starts around 13.00 Swedish time and is not expected to end until later in the evening.
According to the White House, one of the aims of the summit is to “restore the predictability and stability of US-Russian relations.” Joe Biden will also hold a press conference after the meeting on the same topic, according to the White House.
Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that relations between the US and Russia are at “bottom level” ahead of today's meeting, and today Joe confirmed Biden that he shares Putin's view on that point.
– I think he's right, this is a bottom line. And that depends on whether he acts in accordance with international standards, and in many cases he does not, says Biden.
In an interview with NBC journalist Keir Simmons in Moscow, Putin said on Friday that US-Russian relations have fallen to “their lowest level in several years”. At the same time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to CNN that one of the reasons Putin was attending the meeting was his concern about this.
When Joe Biden earlier this year called Vladimir Putin a murderer, Russia called home its ambassador from Washington. And when a journalist asked if Putin had “ordered” an assassination attempt on opposition activist Alexei Navalny, the Russian president answered by asking the question.
– Did you order the murder of this woman who entered the Capitol and was shot dead? ? Putin wondered.
The statement referred to 35-year-old Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt who was shot dead by police during the riots in the US Congress building on January 6, even though she was not armed. US authorities later dropped the investigation and classified who shot her dead, which drew criticism from Russia, among others.
At the same time, Biden is being pressured by both party friends and neoconservative Republicans to take a tougher line against Russia in terms of, among other things, the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline, which Sweden has somewhat unexpectedly had Russia build through the Swedish economic zone in the Baltic Sea.
list of demands from the Republican study committee RSC, which Fox News publishes, it is proposed that Joe Biden reintroduce the sanctions against the project's German CEO Matthias Warnig.
The United States has previously imposed sanctions on Warnig and resorted to the unusual measure to leak information from the Stasi archives, which showed that Warnig was previously a leader in the dreaded East German security service. But Biden has previously decided to withdraw the sanctions against both Nord Stream 2 AG and CEO Warnig, and the Republican document proposes that he reintroduce them again.
No joint press conference is to be expected after today's Meeting. The countries are not expected to reach any agreements that can be presented.