President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet for four to five hours on Wednesday, senior White House officials said, noting that “nothing is off the table for an American president” during the highly anticipated summit in Geneva.
Officials said that the president is prepared for the summit with Putin, noting that he has reviewed issues, written materials and engaged with a wide variety of advisers. The meeting comes after Biden participated in the G-7 and NATO summits with Democratic allies from around the world.
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Putin is expected to arrive in Geneva first, accompanied by foreign ministers and a translator. Biden will bring Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as a translator. Swiss President Guy Parmelin will greet the two leaders.
Officials said “no meal is anticipated,” but noted that “there will be some flexibility so leaders can take breaks.”
Both Russian and U.S. ambassadors will be in Geneva during the high-stakes meeting, officials said, adding that returning ambassadors to their respective countries is on the table.
After the meeting, each president will hold separate news conferences.
What issues will Biden and Putin discuss?
Biden and Putin are expected to discuss a range of issues, including Iran and North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, Syria, the Arctic, strategic stability, arms control, climate change and COVID-19.
The U.S. and Russia have long competed on a global scale, and while the U.S. exceeds Russian capabilities in many areas, as in the case of the U.S. military, Putin has relied on other factors to bolster Russian dominance — including cyberstrikes.
When asked whether Biden planned to ask Putin about jailed Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, officials said: “When the other side says something is off the table, nothing is off the table for an American president, especially human rights.”
Biden and Putin are also expected to again discuss the intent of the U.S. and Russia to pursue a “strategic stability dialogue on a range of arms control and emerging security issues” to build on the extension of the New START Treaty, according to the White House. The START Treaty places verifiable limits on all Russian deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons.
The treaty was established on Feb. 5, 2011 and, according to the State Department, the U.S. and the Russian Federation have agreed to extend it through Feb. 4, 2026.
“We are flexible on timing and format of agreements,” an official said.
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Biden is also expected to raise the issue of Russia-based ransomware attacks.
An official said ransomware will be “a significant topic” between the leaders, and maintained that Biden is “willing to take action against Russia – significant types of action – like he did with SolarWinds.”
Biden has sought to pressure Russia though economic sanctions, imposing penalties last week on Russian companies and ships for their work on a natural gas pipeline in Europe, though the Biden administration spared the German company overseeing the project — leading to frustration from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
And last month, the Biden administration imposed a raft of new sanctions on Russia for its attempted interference in the 2020 election and a Kremlin-linked cyberattack that penetrated multiple federal agencies.
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The measures sanctioned 32 entities and individuals who sought to influence the outcome of the November election last year under orders from the Russian government. The White House also expelled 10 Russian diplomats working in Washington, D.C., including some intelligence officers.
Biden, this week, said Putin was a “worthy adversary,” days after Putin praised former President Trump and called Biden a “career man” in an interview.
“He’s bright, he’s tough, and I’ve found that he is – as they said when I used to play ball – a worthy adversary,” Biden said of Putin.
“I believe that former U.S. president Mr. Trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual, otherwise he would not have become U.S. president,” Putin recently told NBC News in his first interview with a U.S. news network since 2018. “He is a colorful individual. You may like him or not. And, but he didn’t come from the U.S. establishment, he had not been part of big-time politics before, and some like it some don’t like it but that is a fact.”
Putin added that Biden “is radically different from Trump because President Biden is a career man. He has spent virtually his entire adulthood in politics.”
