Biden and Putin hold high-stakes Geneva summit

By Peter Wilkinson, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Aditi Sangal, Melissa Macaya, Nick Thompson, Meg Wagner, Melissa Mahtani and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 0841 GMT (1641 HKT) June 17, 2021
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11:45 a.m. ET, June 16, 2021

The Biden-Putin summit has ended

From CNN's Kevin Liptak and Phil Mattingly

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk in a hall during their meeting at the Villa la Grange in Geneva.
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk in a hall during their meeting at the Villa la Grange in Geneva. Mikhail Metzel/Pool/Sputnik/AP

The summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin is now over, a White House official says.

Their official meetings were broken into two rounds, one a smaller session and the second with larger delegations. The total run time came in shorter than the four to five hours officials initially predicted for the summit.

The final session, and the summit itself, ended just past 5 p.m. local time.

Biden and Putin are set to hold separate, solo news conferences next.

11:30 a.m. ET, June 16, 2021

Expanded session at Biden-Putin summit is over, according to official

From CNN's Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins in Geneva

The expanded session between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin and their delegations has ended, according to a White House official.

It was only one larger bilateral meeting, not two big ones, per an aide.

A White House official says the meetings that were officially scheduled for the summit have now ended, but they are not ruling out what each leader decides to do now.

President Biden's limo is now idling outside the doors of the Villa la Grange. 

This brings the current timing of the summit to 93 minutes for the first session, a 45 minute break, and 65 minutes for the second session.

Biden and Putin are set to hold separate, solo news conferences today.

4:31 p.m. ET, June 16, 2021

There is a different atmosphere in the expanded Biden-Putin summit session

From CNN's Kevin Liptak in Geneva

Mikhail Metzel/TASS/Getty Images
Mikhail Metzel/TASS/Getty Images

There is a different atmosphere in the expanded round of talks underway now in Geneva than in the earlier, smaller session between Presidents Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biden is seated across the table from Putin in their expanded meeting, which is occurring in a different room from the book-lined study where the earlier round took place. 

He is flanked by national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Tony Blinken.

Unlike the first session, where translators in the room interpreted the leaders’ comments from nearby, the leaders are now wearing earpieces for simultaneous translation. Microphones are in front of each official.

This allows for a quicker pace of talks, officials say. 

Biden has come to the meeting with a binder of materials and cards printed out with bullet points.

Both sides have holding rooms on the grounds of the Villa la Grange for their delegations where they were able to retreat during the 45-minute break between rounds. Officials say that the rooms have refreshments, but that there is still no plan for a meal between Biden and Putin.

10:40 a.m. ET, June 16, 2021

These are the Russian officials in the room with Putin for the second meeting

From CNN's Anna Chernova and Zahra Ullah

According to Russian state media, RIA Novosti is reporting the following Russian officials are taking part in the extended meeting:

The Russian delegation includes:

  • Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
  • Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov
  • Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov
  • Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov
  • Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov

RIA Novosti added the Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Office Dmitry Kozak and Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev were also invited to the summit to discuss regional issues, namely Ukraine and Syria.

4:30 p.m. ET, June 16, 2021

The second round of Biden-Putin talks is underway. Here's a recap of what unfolded earlier today.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin greets US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Villa la Grange in Geneva on Wednesday.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin greets US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Villa la Grange in Geneva on Wednesday. Saul Loeb/Pool/AP

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are currently in their second meeting of the day. If you're just reading in now, here's what happened so far

  • Biden and Putin handshake kicks off the high-stakes summit: Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin shook hands before the historic meeting at Villa la Grange in Geneva got underway. The two presidents stood outside the villa with the Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who made short remarks welcoming the two leaders. Parmelin said he wished the leaders a "fruitful dialogue in the interest of your two countries and the world."
  • Biden wasn't indicating he trusts Putin with nod, White House says: US President Biden wasn’t indicating he trusts Putin when he nodded in response to a reporter’s shouted question, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday. "During a chaotic free for all with members of the press shouting questions over each other, the President gave a general head nod in the direction of the media. He wasn’t responding to any question or anything other than the chaos," Psaki said.
  • Biden is seeking a "predictable and rational" relationship between the countries: As the two Presidents sat down to meet, Biden said he was seeking a "predictable and rational" relationship with Russia, and made reference to the US and Russia as "two great powers," a notable elevation of Moscow's status on the world stage. "I think it's always better to meet face to face, try to determine where we have mutual interest, cooperate," Biden said. For his part, Putin thanked Biden for "the initiative to meet" as the pair sat down ahead of their first meeting. "I know you've been on a long journey and have a lot of work," Putin said. "Still the US and Russia and US relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest-level meeting and I hope that our meeting will be productive."
  • US and Russia relations are at a low point, Biden said: Expectations for the summit are also low among American officials, who have said since the encounter was first announced they didn't think anything concrete would emerge from it. Instead, Biden is looking to open lines of communication with the notoriously shrewd Putin in the hopes of stalling further deterioration in relations between the United States and Moscow, which Biden said this week had reached a low point.
10:22 a.m. ET, June 16, 2021

Why Biden's meeting with Putin carries historic echoes

Analysis by CNN's Stephen Collinson

Russian military vehicles prepare to be loaded into a plane for airborne drills during maneuvers in Crimea.
Russian military vehicles prepare to be loaded into a plane for airborne drills during maneuvers in Crimea. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP

US President Joe Biden's showdown with Russia's Vladimir Putin on Wednesday is one of the most critical summits of recent times, and not just because relations between the two nations — which together own 90% of the world's nuclear weapons — have plummeted to post-Cold War lows.

The presidents are meeting in Geneva on Wednesday for talks resonating with historic echoes of past Soviet-US confrontations. Their nations are at a strategic crossroads that if not properly navigated could erupt into a disastrous escalation on a new battlefield – in cyberspace.

The talks also represent a critical early political trial for Biden and exemplify the all-encompassing challenge facing a presidency anchored on a fight to preserve democracy, which is under siege at home and abroad.

After all, Putin's core foreign policy goal is the fracturing of US political stability and prestige. He is accused of meddling in two elections to help ex-President Donald Trump – the top homegrown threat to US democracy.

Biden will hold the summit at a time when multiple factors are pushing US democracy to a breaking point: Trump's false claims of voter fraud, Republican state efforts to make it harder to vote and easier to rig elections, and the GOP's refusal to hold the former President to account for the Capitol Insurrection. The chaos, much of which was encouraged by Putin himself in misinformation operations targeting American politics, will play into the Russian leader's conceit that the US is weakened, turning on itself and hardly a beacon for the world.

Continue reading Collinson's analysis here.

10:13 a.m. ET, June 16, 2021

Biden-Putin summit should have these "realistic" goals, says Council on Foreign Relations president

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass outlined what he thinks are the “realistic” goals of the meeting between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

“I think the goals of this summit and the relationship more broadly is less what we can accomplish together. … The real question is what we can avoid," Haass said to CNN’s Poppy Harlow. "Can we avoid further aggression in Europe? Can we deter Russia from, say, doing towards a NATO country what it did towards Ukraine? Can we get Russia to use force less indiscriminately in Syria? Can we get Russia to back off some of its use of cyber? That, to me, is a realistic agenda. It may not seem like a lot, but to keep a bad situation from getting worse is sometimes all you can do in foreign policy.”

Haass also addressed the two leaders’ plan to hold separate press conferences.  

A joint conference would be “something of a risk for each of these two men, simply because they can't control what the other person does,” Haass said. 

“I think particularly for Biden, it wasn't clear to me what a joint session would accomplish, because Putin would go on the offensive and then to get into a public competition, basically to get down in the mud with Putin, [it's] not clear how that works if Biden's goal is to calm this relationship so he can focus more on domestic issues or on China,” he said. 

Watch:

10:00 a.m. ET, June 16, 2021

Biden and Putin's political experience means there's "no illusions" they'll be friends, expert says

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

Mikhail Metzel/TASS/Getty Images
Mikhail Metzel/TASS/Getty Images

The Biden-Putin summit is about “stabilizing and bringing more predictability” to the US-Russia relations, and there are “no illusions that these guys are going to be friends,” Woodrow Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute’s Director Matthew Rojansky says.

“President Biden has set appropriately low expectations in terms of not ending this meeting with a big handshake and a signing ceremony and a joint press conference,” he said. “This will be very much about stabilizing and bringing more predictability to the relationship. The administration has used the term ‘guardrails on escalatory behavior.’”

Biden is expected to bring up many critical issues, such as election interference and cyber security, which are going to be difficult. But there could be some interest in seeking common ground on nuclear stabilities and arms control.

The political experience that both the Presidents bring to the table is recognized on both sides, Rojansky says.

“There's this notion there's no illusions that these guys are going to be friends. None of this pretend, hail hello, slapping each other on the back,” he said.

“It’s, at best, mutual respect and mutual deterrence,” he added.

The goal of this meeting is to create conditions where Russia has a stake in dialogue with the US, Rojansky explains.

“Maybe If Russia has a stake in that dialogue going forward, some of the unpredictable, provocative, aggressive behavior can be dialed back. Because in a sense Putin is getting the engagement that he's looking for.”

9:50 a.m. ET, June 16, 2021

First Putin-Biden meeting of summit is over, White House official says

From CNN's Kaitlan Collins in Geneva

The first, smaller meeting between President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin ended about 10 minutes ago, meaning they spent just under two hours together.

The first session started at 1:44 p.m. local and wrapped at 3:17 p.m. local, for a total of 93 minutes. The first meeting was on the schedule for 1 hour 20 minutes, so it went only slightly over schedule.

The larger meeting is now underway, a White House official says.