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Biden-Putin summit: What to expect when you're not expecting much

16 June 2021
 Dan Ackermann

After a bitter blast from Putin and tough talk from Biden, both sides agree: Don't count on much from Wednesday's summit between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What they're saying: "We’re not expecting a big set of deliverables out of this meeting," a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Air Force One from Brussels to Geneva. "No breaking of bread."

  • "I'm not sure that any agreements will be reached," Putin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said.

Biden and Putin are scheduled to greet each other at about 7 a.m. ET in Villa La Grange, a mansion set in a 75-acre park overlooking Lake Geneva.

  • A Putin news conference is scheduled for noon EDT, followed by a Biden news conference.

Former Russian diplomat Vladimir Frolov told Reuters that Putin wants respectful treatment like members of the Soviet Politburo got in the 1960s-1980s, with "a symbolic recognition of Russia's geopolitical parity with the U.S."

  • Frolov said that in exchange, Moscow "would be willing to cut back on some of the loony stuff ... no poisonings, no physical violence, no arrests/kidnappings of U.S. and Russian nationals."

In contrast to President Trump's 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, which included a meeting accompanied only by interpreters, Biden and Putin aren't expected to have any solo dealings.

  • Biden will push Putin to stop meddling in democratic elections, to ease tensions with Ukraine and to stop giving safe harbor to hackers carrying out cyber and ransomware attacks. Aides believe that lowering the temperature with Russia will also reinforce U.S. ties to democracies existing in Moscow’s shadow. (AP)

Go deeper: "Making history: The scramble to document presidents' summits."

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.