Biden-Putin summit: US and Russian leaders meet for tense Geneva talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Geneva on Wednesday ahead of a summit with US President Joe Biden, Reuters TV footage showed, with the stage set for a tense first meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office in January.
GENEVA — With stern expressions and polite words before the cameras, President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin plunged into hours of face-to-face talks Wednesday at a lush lakeside Swiss mansion, a highly anticipated summit at a time when both leaders agree that relations between their countries are at an all-time low.
Biden called it a discussion between ” and said it was “always better to meet face to face.” Putin, for his part, said he hoped the talks would be “productive.”
The meeting in a book-lined room had a somewhat awkward beginning – both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.
Biden nodded when a reporter asked if Putin could be trusted, but the White House quickly sent out a tweet insisting that the president was “very clearly not responding to any one question, but nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally.”
Putin ignored shouted questions from reporters, including if he feared jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The two leaders did shake hands – Biden extended his hand first and smiled at the stoic Russian leader – moments earlier when they posed with Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who welcomed them to Switzerland for the summit.
