Biden-Putin Gossip Ends. Result: Zilch
Biden does not understand that a large population in the world prefers to have a leader like Putin, although he has been branded as a dictator.
By Rakesh Raman
The meeting between the U.S. President Joe Biden and the Russian President Vladimir Putin ended in Geneva on June 16 without any measurable outcome. The two adversaries discussed a range of issues, but could not take a decision to resolve any of them.
In their 3-hour-long meeting, Putin refused to accept any of the allegations being leveled against Russia, and Biden did not have any satisfactory response on how America plans to respond if Russia continued with its hostile actions against the U.S. and other countries of the world.
In his exclusive press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, when Biden was asked about the American response to Russian actions such as cyber attacks and human rights violations, Biden did not have any clear answer. The U.S. President also had no plan to deal with persisting conflicts in Belarus and Ukraine where it is believed that Russia is inciting trouble. Biden simply said that Putin’s credibility will shrink.
But Biden – who perhaps does not understand the dynamics of foreign relations and Russia’s role in world politics – failed to provide any yardstick to measure Putin’s shrinking credibility and its effect on the Russian leader.
Biden does not understand that a large population in the world prefers to have a leader like Putin, although he has been branded as a dictator. Even in the U.S., nearly 50% of the local population still admires Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump who is believed to be a Putin clone. With his flawed messaging, Biden could not address any of the concerns that he had with Putin and Russia.
One of the major issues, for example, was the continuing imprisonment of Putin’s political opponent Alexei Navalny in Russia. Instead of urging Putin to release Navalny, Biden stressed that the Kremlin critic should not die in the Russian jail.
Putin – who does not even call Navalny by his name during his conversations – said that he is taking actions against unruly political opponents because he does not want to face a similar attack on Russian democracy that took place in the U.S.
He was referring to the January 6 riot which is being construed as an attempted coup by the insurgents incited by Trump with the aim to remove Biden who won the presidential election. Putin maintains categorically that there is no human rights violation in Russia.
Putin also dismissed concerns over Russia’s growing military presence in the Arctic. He said these concerns are unfounded and Russia has only been restoring the destroyed infrastructure in the region.
Obviously, when there is no crime, there cannot be a penalty. When Biden was asked about the possible penalty on Russia for its actions which are categorized as abnormal by the U.S., the U.S. president had no answer. Like a defeated man, Biden kept giving vague responses to the questions asked during the press conference.
As it was an utterly useless meeting between Biden and Putin, Russia will keep doing what it has been doing and the U.S. will not do what it has not been doing against Russia.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
