Photo: DENIS BALIBOUSE / Getty Images
“Biden is a professional, working with him you have to have a lot careful not to lose anything. He himself does not lose anything, I assure you ”, said Russian President Vladimir Putin in a conversation with graduate students of the Higher School of Public Administration of his country, upon returning from the first personal meeting between the two leaders, held on last Wednesday in Geneva (Switzerland).
“Biden is calm, knows what he wants to achieve and he does it with great skill, which is immediately noticeable ”, Putin underlined, when assessing the performance of his American counterpart, whom many have pointed out as not being in full capacity, due to being the oldest person (78) to become president of the United States
Three months ago, Biden said that Putin was “a murderer” . Then, in April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking on behalf of the United States and its NATO allies, expressed deep concern over Moscow’s military build-up along the way. along the border with Ukraine, and the Washington intelligence community said in an annual report that Russia “presents one of the most serious intelligence threats to the United States. ”
Now the Russian President highlighted the importance of the personal meeting he held with his American counterpart: “When people stop talking, reproaches increase and mutual concerns on issues where they could be avoided. ”
Putin stressed that Biden’s personality has nothing to do with “the image that the press gives of him.” “We define the areas in which we can talk about a possible approach to positions in the future. There are issues that are of absolute interest and priority to both us and the United States, ”he said, quoted by Sputnik News, the your government’s news agency.
Instead, Putin was more sarcastic in commenting on Jen Psaki, Biden’s main spokeswoman. The press is a young, educated and pretty woman ”, reported the also Russian news agency TASS. Then the president added: “She is mixing things up all the time. This is not because he is not educated or has bad memory. You just know that when people think that some things are secondary, they don’t really focus on this … Americans believe that nothing is more important than themselves. This is their style. ”
The first meeting of the two leaders was held on 16 June in Geneva . At the end of the meeting, they announced that they had agreed to start consultations on strategic stability and cybersecurity.
Putin and Biden also reaffirmed their commitment to the approach formulated in 1985 by the then US president, Ronald Reagan, and the leader of the former Soviet Union (USSR), Mikhail Gorbachev, that “a nuclear war is unacceptable, there can be no winner and the parties will not fight for military superiority.”
At the end of the summit it was announced that the Ambassadors of Russia and the United States will finish the “consultations” and will return to their posts soon in Washington and Moscow, respectively, following a recent period of marked tension, in which Putin has been seen very close to the government of China.
Russian President Vladimir Putin praises US President Joe Biden, calling him a “professional” following historic Geneva summit https://t.co/e4RZcFp0GC
– CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 18, 2021
Russian President, Vladimir Putin praises Biden’s professionalism after their meeting in Geneva, Switzerland; Mr. Biden is a professional, and you need to be very careful when working with him so as not to miss something, “Putin said during a video conference meeting with pic.twitter.com/ast7ajxhaI
– Fourth Television (@ 4thtelevision) June 18, 2021