Putin-Biden Summit Depends On US Behaviour: Kremlin to Washington

Biden, in a phone call on Tuesday, proposed a summit of the estranged leaders to tackle a raft of disputes and told Moscow to reduce tensions over Ukraine triggered by a Russian military build-up.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden would be contingent on US behaviour after reportedly telling Washington to scrap a plan to impose new sanctions on Russia. Biden, in a phone call on Tuesday, proposed a summit of the estranged leaders to tackle a raft of disputes and told Moscow to reduce tensions over Ukraine triggered by a Russian military build-up. Moscow says the build-up is a three-week snap military drill in response to what it calls threatening behaviour from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and has said the exercise is due to wrap up within two weeks. Putin's spokesman said on Wednesday that the proposed summit, in a yet to be chosen European country, was contingent on future U.S. behaviour in what looked like a thinly veiled reference to potential US sanctions.