Biden and Putin to hold summit on June 16 in Switzerland
Al JazeeraThe US and Russia plan to discuss stability between the two nations, while expectations for a breakthrough are low. US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a long-anticipated summit in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16, the White House and the Kremlin announced on Tuesday, marking the first meeting between the two leaders since Biden became president in January. Biden has previously said he wants Putin to stop trying to influence US elections, stop cyberattacks on US networks emanating from Russia, stop threatening Ukraine’s sovereignty and release jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny. The White House has also been wary of describing Biden as seeking a “reset” in relations with Putin and US officials see a face-to-face meeting as an opportunity to rebalance the relationship away from what they see as former President Donald Trump’s fawning overtures to Putin. Shifting US approach towards Russia The White House has repeatedly said it is seeking a “stable and predictable” relationship with the Russians, while also calling out Putin on allegations that the Russians interfered in last year’s US presidential election and that the Kremlin was behind a hacking campaign – commonly referred to as the SolarWinds breach – in which Russian hackers infected widely used software with malicious code, enabling them to access the networks of at least nine US agencies.