- It was important to meet in person
so there can be no mistake about
or misrepresentations about what I wanted to communicate.
I did what I came to do.
- [Interpreter] It was substantive, it was concrete
and it took place in an atmosphere
that was geared towards achieving results.
- American President Joe Biden
and Russian President Vladimir Putin
have held their first
much-ballyhooed summit meeting in Geneva.
And what's the story of that summit?
Well, it's really two stories.
The first is a story of the atmospherics
of their meeting, which clearly were positive,
surprisingly so, in fact.
The second is the story of the substance
of their meeting where it's not at all clear
that things were quite as positive.
First, the atmospherics.
It was striking how both leaders emerged describing
their meeting in positive terms.
President Putin called President Biden an experienced
and professional leader
and even had good words
to say about the advice Mr. Biden once got
from his mother.
He said essentially Joe Biden
is a man of good moral character.
- [Interpreter] It shows the extent of his moral values.
And that's all quite attractive
and what I think is on the whole we spoke the same language.
- [Gerald] That was striking given that President Biden
at one point recently said he agreed
that President Putin could fairly be described
as a killer and that he said
once he didn't see a soul inside him.
It also wasn't clear
how the Putin-Biden personal relationship might suffer
in comparison to the admiration the Russian leader seemed
to feel for the previous American president, Donald Trump.
On the Biden side, the US president said the conversation
was direct and matter of fact,
lacking in emotion and he meant that in a good way,
and devoice of threats.
He said he succeeded in his main goal,
which was to be sure President Putin knew
where he was coming from
when he expressed criticism of Russian action.
- I told President Putin my agenda is not against Russia
or anyone else.
It's for the American people.
- These good atmospherics extended
to include an agreement
to return American and Russian ambassadors
to each other's capitals
after an absence of several months
amid rising tensions
and the two leaders agreed their governments
would discussion a prisoner exchange
that could return some Americans
that President Biden says
are being wrongly imprisoned in Russia.
On substance though, the outcome seemed more mixed.
The two leaders agreed to set up a working group
on cyber attacks
but President Putin defiantly denied a Russian role
in cyber attacks and in recent ransomware cases,
despite ample evidence some of them do emanate from Russia.
He even suggested more cyber attacks come
from the US than from Russia,
raising the question of how far that working group can get.
- [Interpreter] Most of the cyber attacks in the world
are carried out from the cyber realm of the United States.
In second place is Canada.
Afterwards, Latin American countries
and then comes Great Britain.
Russia's not on the list.
- [Gerald] Meanwhile, President Biden said
the Russian leader knows
the US has considerable cyber power
of its own and can use it in response
to further attacks.
The two men agreed to start a bilateral dialogue
on strategic stability,
probably including arms control
but without a lot of specifics
and there's a long road to travel there.
President Putin threw human rights questions back
at the US by blaming dissident Alexei Navalny
for his own arrest.
- [Interpreter] This person knew
that he was breaching the laws effective in Russia.
He should have noted that has a person
who was convicted two times.
- [Gerald] And pretending his problems
with political opponents
at home were somehow comparable
to the problem the US had
when a mob attacked the US Capitol on January 6th.
President Biden, for his part,
pledged he will continue
to raise human rights in Russia.
- Human rights is gonna always be on the table I told him.
It's not about just going after Russia
when they violate human rights,
it's about who we are.
- [Gerald] There were some good words about working
towards similar goals on Afghanistan,
on Iran's nuclear program
and on humanitarian aid to Syria
but again, no specifics
and a long ways to go
to close the gap between rhetoric and reality.
The bottom line, President Biden acknowledged
what is usually the case with these meetings.
The real concrete results can't be known immediately
but will take months or even years to determine.
- Let's see what happens.
As that old expression goes,
the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
We're gonna know shortly.
(pensive music)