White House says Biden-Putin summit will be held in Geneva on June 16
25 May 2021
President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16 for their first in-person summit, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Why it matters: The highly anticipated summit offers an early test of the Biden administration's goal of holding Russia accountable for its abuses while seeking a more "stable" and "predictable" relationship.
The big picture: Tensions between the U.S. and Russia have soared in the first six months of the Biden presidency.
- U.S. intelligence declassified a report on March 16 finding that Putin authorized election influence operations aimed at denigrating Biden's candidacy, supporting former President Trump, and undermining public confidence in the vote.
- One day later, Biden said in an interview that he believes Putin is a "killer," prompting Moscow to recall its ambassador to the U.S.
- The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Russia for election interference, the attempted poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the SolarWinds hack of federal agencies and the occupation of Crimea.
- Russia has retaliated by expelling 10 U.S. diplomats and banning top U.S. officials from entering the country. Its massive military buildup on the eastern border of Ukraine drew warnings from the U.S. and its European allies.
Despite the tensions, both governments have expressed interest in cooperating on areas of mutual interest, like climate change and arms control.
- Biden agreed to a five-year extension of the New START nuclear arms control pact as one of his first foreign policy moves after taking office, and Putin attended a virtual White House climate summit in April.
- The Biden administration also waived sanctions on the corporate entity and Putin-allied CEO overseeing the construction of Nord Stream 2, allowing the Russian-owned pipeline to bypass Ukraine and deliver natural gas directly to Europe. The move has been rebuked on Capitol Hill as a geopolitical gift to Putin.
Timing: Ahead of meeting Putin, Biden will travel to the U.K. on June 11-13 for the G7 summit, followed by a trip to Brussels on June 14 for the NATO summit.
Flashback: At a now-infamous summit in Helsinki in July 2018, Trump drew widespread condemnation by siding with Putin over his own intelligence community's assessment of Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly 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.