When U.S. President Joe Biden meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday it will be one of the most closely watched pieces of geopolitical theater this year.
Biden’s summit with Putin in Switzerland, chosen for its history of political neutrality, will not be the first time the two have met. But it will be their first meeting since Biden became U.S. president, the so-called leader of the free world.
The Biden-Putin summit is expected to strike a different tone than the meeting that took place in July 2018 between then-President Donald Trump and Putin. Trump insisted that the two leaders meet at the beginning of the summit without any aides present — stirring concerns that the former KGB officer would outflank his American counterpart.
This week’s meeting between Biden and Putin comes on the heels of Biden’s first international trip as president, where he reaffirmed alliances with G-7 leaders and NATO allies. At NATO’s headquarters, Biden told reporters that he consulted with other world leaders in the days ahead of his meeting with Putin.
“Every world leader here, most of them mentioned it [the upcoming summit] and thanked me for meeting with Putin,” Biden said Monday.
“I had discussions with them about what they thought was important from their perspective and what they thought was not important,” he said, adding that his counterparts appreciated his transparency and coordination.
On Tuesday, a Kremlin aide said nuclear stability, climate change and cybersecurity were on the agenda for the summit, Reuters reported, as well as the outlook for Russian and U.S. nationals imprisoned in each other’s countries.
Nonetheless, the aide said he was not sure any agreements could be reached.
Navalny’s imprisonment
Russia is largely seen as a pariah in the West following a series of incidents perpetrated by — or at least involving — Moscow in recent years that have provoked international condemnation and criticism.
Confrontation over Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s imprisonment in Russia is the latest drumbeat in the already tense relations.
In January, Navalny flew to Russia from Berlin, Germany where he had spent nearly half a year recovering after he was poisoned last summer. He was arrested at passport control. A month later, a Russian court sentenced Navalny to more than two years in jail for parole violations, charges he said were politically motivated.
In September, the German government said that the Russian dissident was poisoned by a chemical nerve agent, describing the toxicology report as providing “unequivocal evidence.” The nerve agent was in the Novichok family, which was developed by the Soviet Union. Toxicology tests conducted in France and Sweden also came to the same conclusion.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied having a role in Navalny’s poisoning. The West has repeatedly called on Moscow to immediately release Navalny. Biden warned on Monday that if Navalny died while in Russian custody, Moscow’s relationship with the rest of the world would further deteriorate.
