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Summary: "Talks took
place between Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden in Geneva on June 16. First, there
was a small group meeting, and then a large group meeting in which the
delegations participated. What can be agreed upon when there is no trust? Or is
there? Have the two sides stepped back from a dangerous point, or have tensions
in relations only increased, as they did following the Putin-Trump meeting in
2018? The first results of the Summit are discussed on “The Great Game.”
Introductory Comment: The general tenor of the discussion among
the main guests and moderators on "Bolshaya Igra" was much more optimistic than I had anticipated.
This optimism was probably unjustified, but it shows the desire of the
commentariat elite, which “The Great Game” represents, for better relations with
the US, and their relief that things seemed to go well. Overall, the contrasts between the style of the Moscow pro-Putin media and Washiington pro-Biden media were almost a case of the "blind men and the elephant." Where Moscow media saw a victory for Putin (though not as great as that over Trump at Helsinki), and focused on the set-piece statements of the Putin press conference, but not the gotcha questions from the pro-Biden Washington media and Putin's whataboutism, the pro-Biden Washington media drew the opposite conclusions, hailing the Summit as a victory for Biden. Moscow saw Putin as gaining stature and status, while Washington saw Biden as delivering important messages to Putin for the first time. Both views are true in their own way, but it shows just how far apart the sides really are. End Comment.
Moderator Dmitri Simes began the program by stating that it was obvious that the Summit had achieved positive results, even though they were not particularly large. Federation Council Deputy Chairman Konstantin Kosachev agreed. On the eve of the meeting, there were many dark predictions. It is true that most of the meetings were taken up with an exchange of complaints, but there were also positive results: an agreement to return Ambassadors to their posts, and an agreement to begin a dialogue on strategic stability, as well as cybersecurity, and the Arctic. That was enough for him to conclude that the Summit was productive.
Co-moderator Vyacheslav Nikonov groused
that the only source for Russians on the Summit was President Putin, since
President Biden had not agreed to take questions from Russian reporters. Putin,
did, however, give a positive evaluation of the talks (the big board then played
a clip of the press conference in which Putin said there was no hostility and
the meetings were constructive -- the Biden press conference had not yet begun).
Konstantin Remchukov, Editor, Nezavisimaya
Gazeta, perhaps getting a little carried away, gave very high marks to the
Geneva meeting. President Biden had characterized the meeting as between “two
great powers,” going against the Obama administration’s evaluation that Russia
was a great power only in terms of nuclear arms. Biden refused to demonize
Putin, calling him a worthy opponent. Biden seemed to be talking about “peaceful
coexistence,” rather than confrontation.
Nikonov noted Putin’s very important
statement on strategic stability lauding Biden’s decision to extend New START
II (SNV-III). Simes also stressed the importance of an agreement to talk about
cybersecurity. Kosachev said that the return of Ambassadors to their posts was
a hopeful sign. (the big board played Putin’s statement that MFA and State would
meet to discuss problems on the “diplomatic track,” i.e., the current problems
with diplomatic staffing). Kosachev noted specifically the problem of
diplomatic ceilings and third-country personnel (a US concern) and the “arrest
of properties (a Russian concern). (The big board then showed a video of the
site where President Biden would soon give his press conference).
Nikonov then referred to the agreement to
begin talks about cybersecurity issues, noting that Putin had pointed out that
most cyberattacks occurred in the US, and that attacks originating from Russia
were small in number (Comment: this is a willful misunderstanding of how cyber
attacks work, and how foreigners use US servers to conceal their activities
from US intelligence agencies). Putin also pointed out that there was much work
to be done on cybersecurity, since Russian complaints had not been answered.
Simes called the agreement to begin a dialogue on this issue as an achievement
of Russian diplomacy, but conceded that while beginning a dialogue was a great
success, the dialogue itself would be very difficult.
Nikonov raised the issue of Ukraine, which
was touched on briefly in the Putin press conference. Kosachev commented that
the Ukrainians must be disappointed that Biden was not giving them a free
ticket into NATO, and that the Minsk process was recognized as valid by the
Americans (at least according to Putin and pro-Putin media).
Simes then introduced former State
Department official and current Fox News commentator Chris Wighton. Wighton (speaking in rather loud English dubbed over in Russian),
behaved like a good little Quisling. He took only a few seconds to get around
to his main point that Putin had gotten more out of the Summit. Biden was at the
end of a very busy trip, but he did well too. Before the trip, Biden was saying
very aggressive things about Ukraine and cybersecurity retaliation, but it
seemed that some red lines had disappeared. The surprising thing was that the
Summit did not fall apart. It was bad timing to put it at the end of such a
long trip, where Biden would be saying many negative things about Russia. (Comment:
Needless to say, my opinion of the quality of Fox commentators is once again
confirmed).
“The Great Game” then paused so
everyone could watch the first five minutes of President Biden’s press
conference, and then cut away for more commentary.
Kosachev complained that American
correspondents were less interested in what happened at the talks and more
interested in trapping Putin with trick questions (this refers in particular to
the question where ABC reporter Rachel Scott asked why all of Putin’s opponents
seemed to die or go to prison – what was he afraid of?).
Earlier, Nikonov had advanced the rather
astonishing idea that Russia was a more democratic state than the US. After a commercial break, the big board showed Putin’s outrageous
“whataboutism” comparison of Russia’s human rights record (being careful not to
mention Navalny by name) with the killing of George Floyd (whom he also did not
name) and the entirely unrelated January 6 riots. Dmitriy Suslov, Deputy Director at the Center for
Comprehensive European and International Studies, then piled on with the
unsurprising opinion that Nikonov was correct and that the US was a much bigger
violator of human rights. Guantanamo and CIA secret prisons came up, among
other things.
Simes said that he would not be bothered by a
continued exchange of contrary opinions between the Americans and Russians on
human rights. As with Nixon and Kissinger, these subjects could be segregated
from other questions. He noted, however, that Ambassador Michael McFaul had said that
the US could walk and chew gum at the same time and take up human rights
simultaneously with other questions. Kosachev said he would like to see no
linkage, but he didn’t see this happening under Biden. At present, Congress had created a
large number of linkages through sanctions (Magnitsky Act, etc.).
The group then listened to the latter part of
President Biden’s press conference, where he talked about the importance of
China, and the fact that Putin did not want a Cold War. Remchukov commented Biden
wanted a meeting with Putin primarily because of concerns about China. No one
wanted Russia to add its strength to that of China.
Nikonov concluded with one of his typical propaganda end pieces, noting that the United States continued to battle for global hegemony and was
trying to drag its allies into a new Cold War, but that Putin had no illusions,
as he said at his press conference, and because of this the world was a little
safer today.
https://www.1tv.ru/shows/big-game/vypuski/bolshaya-igra-specialnyy-vypusk-ot-16-06-2021
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