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On Wednesday, President Biden and President Putin had a four-hour meeting in Geneva. This was not some sketchy little side-meeting, like Donald Trump had with Putin in Helsinki three years ago. The Helsinki incident is still… largely a mystery, and Donald Trump’s behavior at that summit was so egregious, so blatantly treasonous, it’s weird that few people even talk about it these days. Anyway, Putin got philosophical after spending four hours in a room with President Biden, the translators and some diplomats.
About the only thing Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed on as they headed into a high-stakes summit Wednesday was that the relationship between the United States and Russia is at a low point. After close to four hours of talks at a Geneva chalet, that doesn’t appear to have changed. “There is no happiness in life,” Putin said somewhat cryptically in a press conference after discussions wrapped. “There is only a mirage on the horizon. So cherish that.”
The leaders met to discuss a wide range of issues, including Russia’s cyberattacks and the Kremlin’s treatment of dissidents like Alexei Navalny, but the overarching goal for Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to redraw red lines around the government’s malign behavior after four years of deference by Donald Trump, whose disastrous visit with Putin in Helsinki three years ago loomed over Wednesday’s summit. That Biden did not appear to be charmed by the Russian strongman or at any point preoccupied with a soccer ball represented a welcome departure and a reset to more traditional U.S. leadership.
Putin, meanwhile, pointedly refused to answer some questions himself, including about Navalny, the jailed opposition leader who was said to be close to death in April during a hunger strike. (Should Navalny die, Biden said later, the consequences would be “devastating for Russia.”) Biden and Putin exchanged a handshake and pleasantries as the summit began—Biden also gifted Putin a pair of aviator sunglasses—but they made no secret of their disagreements. “I would like to thank you for the initiative to meet today,” said Putin, who was unexpectedly on time for the summit (his typical power move is to show up late). “Still, U.S.-Russian relations have accumulated a lot of issues that require a meeting at the highest level, and I hope that our meetings will be productive.”
It wasn’t clear if many tangibles came out of the summit. The two sides agreed to return ambassadors to their posts and discussed areas that should be considered off limits to cyber attacks. But nobody realistically expected the meeting to put an immediate stop to Putin’s malicious conduct at home and abroad. “This is not a light-switch moment,” Blinken said Monday, seeking to temper expectations. “This is about the president wanting to do two things, and he’s been very clear about it—to tell President Putin directly that we seek a more predictable, stable relationship, and if we’re able to do that, there are areas where it’s in our mutual interest to cooperate. But if Russia continues to take reckless and aggressive actions, we’ll respond forcefully.”
[From Vanity Fair]
The Putin quote is being translated in different ways. VF went with “There is no happiness in life. There is only a mirage on the horizon. So cherish that.” Other outlets went with “In life there is no happiness. There’s only the specter of happiness.” A subtle difference, from “mirage” to “specter.” It actually sounds less Russian and more Irish, which is what four hours in a room with Joe Biden gets you. As for the meeting and whether it was “productive,” I don’t think that was the goal. The goal wasn’t to come out of the meeting with some tangible results or something to sign. The meeting’s goal was to show Putin that he doesn’t have a puppet in the White House, and our NATO allies are not his chess pieces.
As for the gifts… Biden gifted Putin a glass sculpture of an American bison, made by Steuben Glass of New York. Biden also gave Putin a pair of custom aviator sunglasses. LOL. I can’t find anything about any gifts Putin gave to Biden?
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 16, 2021
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