By Aaron Miller
President Biden warned Vladimir Putin that there would be devastating consequences if opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison.
The warning from the U.S president was a show of the American stance against human right abuses in Russia, which has for years been highly intolerable by the western world.
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Following three hours of talks in their first in-person summit, the US president said he told his Russian counterpart that they needed to have “some basic rules of the road that we can all abide by” – or face consequences. But, he added, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”.
At the end of an occasionally tense day, Putin said the discussions were run without “hostility” and that he and Biden “spoke the same language”.
As a gift to the Russian leader, Mr Biden brought Mr Putin a custom-made pair of aviator sunglasses, a style favoured by the US president, and a crystal sculpture of a bison. It is unclear whether Mr Putin gave Mr Biden a gift. In 2018, the Russian leader gave former President Donald Trump a soccer ball after a meeting in Helsinki, Finland.
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The meeting ended on a positive note, at least a few issues. The two sides agreed to begin a dialogue on nuclear arms control. They also said they would return ambassadors to each other’s capitals . The envoys had been mutually withdrawn for consultations in March, after the US accused Russia of meddling in the 2020 presidential election.
Retaliation and Putin have always gone together; the Russian president was defensive against critical questions from journalists about his government’s past record.
Putin dismissed attacks of the country’s human rights records, suggesting his crackdown on political dissents was no different to the US’s crackdown on rioters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January. The obvious difference Putin ignorantly chose not to address was that America operates under a system governed by the rule of law, which fairly tries alleged offenders, rather than convicts them on illegal grounds. Russia is notorious for gangster like imprisonments and assassinations, and has historically been unapologetic about its lawless and dictatorial political structure.
On the subject of Navalny, Putin described him as a ‘repeat offender’ who ‘deliberately wanted to be arrested.’ Navalny was convicted multiple times in Russian for embezzlement, but his criminal cases were believed to have been politically motivated and intended to bar him from running in future elections.’
This man knew that he was breaking the law of Russia,’ Putin said.
‘He is somebody who has been twice, convicted, and he consciously ignored the requirements of the law,’ he said.
Putin described Navalny a ‘repeat offender’ who ‘deliberately wanted to be arrested.’
‘Difficult to say, I think everything to do with the deterioration of our mutual relations was initiated not by us but by the U.S. and I don’t know what they’re thinking about,’ he said.
Refusing to be dominated by journalistic probing questions, Putin also turned the question into criticism of the United States, referring to the January 6th MAGA riot when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of Biden’s election victory.
‘Many people are facing the same things that we do,’ he said.
‘On the question of who is murdering whom, people rioted and went into the Congress in the U.S. with political demands and many people were declared as criminals and they are threatened with imprisonment for 20 to 25 years. And these people were immediately arrested after those events. On what grounds we don’t know always, he said.
Biden called Putin’s comparison of Russian protesters to Black Lives Matter protests and the January 6th MAGA riot ‘ridiculous.’
‘It’s one thing for literally criminals to break through the window of the capital, kill a police officer, and be held accountable. And then there’s four people objecting marching on the Capitol, saying, You are not allowing me to speak for you. You’re not allowing me to do A, B, C or D. And so they’re very different kinds,’ he said.
Criticizing American history, Putin said :’You don’t have time to open your mouth and you’re shot dead,’ he said, referring to mass shootings in the United States.
‘Look at American streets. People are getting killed there,’ he said. ‘You can get a bullet in the neck.’
And, when asked about human rights violations in Russia, he argued in return the US had ‘secret CIA prisons.’
‘Is this how you protect human rights?,’ he said.
‘Guantanamo is still working. Nothing to do with human rights there,’ Putin said.
Human rights group given Russia a low rating on the issue. Human Rights Watch noted ‘the human rights situation in Russia continued to deteriorate in 2019. With few exceptions, authorities responded to rising civic activism with bans, repressive laws, and showcase prosecutions.’
Putin started off his post-summit presser with being complementary of Biden, saying the two sides were determined to understand one another.
He also said he didn’t remember saying he and Biden looked into each other’s eyes and saw their respective souls when they met in 2011 when Biden was vice president.
Eyes And Soul
The Russian president was complimentary towards Biden, but chose to cast doubt around the American president’s claim to have once looked into hiss soul.
‘As far as looking in eyes and finding souls are concerned, well, I actually don’t remember that, but this is not the first time I’ve heard that statement. But if you ask me what kind of partner or interlocutor President Biden is, I would say that he is very balanced, professional and it’s obviously clear he’s very experienced. He talked a bit about his family, what his mother told him, they are important things – maybe they are not quite relevant – but it does talk about the level of his moral values, which is very attractive and it seems to me that we did speak the same language. It certainly doesn’t imply that we must look into each other’s eyes and find a soul or swear our affection but essentially our talks were pragmatic.’
Peculiar
The summit that brought Biden and Putin before the same circle was peculiar in many ways. It was politically professional, but also included some verbal sparring , as the Russian president made every effort to show America to have a dirty historical past, referencing events as recent as the Capitol attack in January this year.
Putin’s attempts to draw comparisons with the U.S in terms of human rights abuses are weak and blinded by an appetite for retaliation. Deep within his soul, the Russian president is aware of the regime over which he presides . It is simply a question of pride that he fights back every time his often-monstrous regime is openly criticized for its archaic like culture of intimidation , and even killings.
Biden threatened retaliation and made his explicit comment publicly even as he denied making any kind of a ‘threat’ in his meetings with the Russian president as they discussed ransomware attacks that shut down the Colonial pipeline and has other U.S. and multinational businesses on edge.
He said he gave the Russian president a list of 16 specific entities that should ‘be off limits to attack, period, by cyber or any other means,’ He didn’t name the items on the list but described them as ‘critical infrastructure.’
‘I talked about the proposition that certain critical infrastructure should be off limits to attack, period’ Biden said, ‘by cyber or any other means. I gave them a list.’
‘I gave them a list. …16 specific entities defined as critical infrastructure under U.S. policy, from the energy sector to our water system.’
‘Principle is one thing: it has to be backed up by practice,’ he said. ‘Responsible countries need to take action against criminals who conduct ransomware activity in their territory.’ The U.S. asses ransomware hackers are based in Russia and essentially enjoy safe harbor form the government there.
‘You don’t have time to open your mouth and you’re shot dead,’ he said, referring to mass shootings in the United States.
‘Look at American streets. People are getting killed there,’ he said. ‘You can get a bullet in the neck.’
And, when asked about human rights violations in Russia, he argued in return the US had ‘secret CIA prisons.’
‘Is this how you protect human rights?,’ he said.
‘Guantanamo is still working. Nothing to do with human rights there,’ Putin said.
Human rights group given Russia a low rating on the issue. Human Rights Watch noted ‘the human rights situation in Russia continued to deteriorate in 2019. With few exceptions, authorities responded to rising civic activism with bans, repressive laws, and showcase prosecutions.’
Putin also shrugged off questions on Navalny and referred to him as ‘the man’ and not by name.
‘This man knew that he was breaking the law of Russia,’ Putin said.
‘He is somebody who has been twice, convicted, and he consciously ignored the requirements of the law,’ he said.
Putin described Navalny a ‘repeat offender’ who ‘deliberately wanted to be arrested.’
Navalny was convicted multiple times in Russian for embezzlement but his criminal cases were widely considered to be politically motivated and intended to bar him from running in future elections.
‘Difficult to say, I think everything to do with the deterioration of our mutual relations was initiated not by us but by the U.S. and I don’t know what they’re thinking about,’ he said.
But, he offered: ‘There is no happiness in life, there is only a mirage on the horizon, so cherish that.’
He confirmed the two nations agreed their respective ambassadors would return to their posts, likely in the next few days. Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, was recalled as tensions simmered between the two nations and the US envoy to Russia, John Sullivan, left Moscow in response.
Putin acknowledged the two leaders discussed the situation in the Ukraine, where Russia has been acting aggressively in the Crimea, but he didn’t offer any details.
‘I don’t think there is anything to discuss there,’ he said when asked about the Ukraine joining NATO, which it wants to do.
He also said Biden agreed to begin negotiations on nuclear talks to potentially replace the New START treaty limiting nuclear weapons after it expires in 2026.
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