Europe Questions Whether Biden-Putin Summit Will Stop Negative Spiral in Relations with Moscow

U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, remained tensely civil and cautiously polite before their much-anticipated summit in an eighteenth-century mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva. The press corps less so as American reporters and TV camerapersons were forced to jostle for space with obdurate Russian rivals.

For some European newspapers, that seemed an apt metaphor. “If relations between the American and Russian press were anything to go by then the two nations have a real problem. While Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin sat in frosty silence the media contingents from their respective countries were involved in an unseemly scuffle with each other and officials,” Britain’s Daily Telegraph noted. “Mr. President, I’d like to thank you for your initiative to meet today. I know that you’ve been on a long journey,” Putin said before the shorter than expected meeting got under way in earnest.  “Thank you,” Biden responded. “I think it’s always better to meet face to face.” Body language