U.S. press has gone wild quoting Russian media complimenting 78-year-old Joe Biden for his better-than-expected performance at the June 16 Geneva summit. For much of the 2020 campaign, the media did practically everything to hide Biden’s age-related memory impairments and propensity toward gaffes, something the media did skillfully, shielding Joe from off-the-cuff exchanges. Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t know what to expect when he met with Biden, given the belligerent rhetoric coming from 58-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken before the summit. U.S. press have gone overboard selling Biden’s performance as a superb statesman, in command of all the relevant issues. Putin complimented Biden in his post-summit press conference as “an experienced statesman different from Trump,” now suddenly morphed by the press into a command performance.
Biden’s actual performance with Putin beat expectations, in part because he stuck to the script that largely parked the vitriol at the door. Putin’s comments was an oblique slap at Trump that he couldn’t figure Trump out like everyone in the mainstream press. Trump was accused by the press of pandering to Putin, largely due to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham’s disinformation, AKA “the Steele dossier,” circulating in the media that Trump was a “Russian asset.” Unlike Biden that must be carefully scripted, Putin looked entirely spontaneous giving Biden some unsolicited compliments. Whether the press saw Trump as chummy with Putin or not, Putin was nervous around Trump not knowing what to expect. “I want to say first the image of President Biden that our and eve the American press paints has nothing to do with reality,” Putin said, giving Biden credit for acting professionally.
Putin gave the U.S. press everything it wanted to hear about Biden. “He’s a professional, and you have to be very careful in working with him to make sure you don’t miss anything. He doesn’t miss anything. I can assure,” Putin said. While the press takes Putin’s word literally that Biden’s at the t op of his game, the Russian leader most likely isn’t sincere, knowing concerns about Biden’s cognitive issues. Putin sized Biden up well, buttering him up because his handlers have genuine insecurity about his memory and gaffe-making tendencies. Trump afforded Putin all the flattery he wanted, telling the Russian leader that he admired his take-charge attitude. Unlike Trump that was decimated by an angry press, Putin controls Russia’s media, not letting the press call the shots. U.S. press acts like it can make-or-break a sitting president, something they did with Trump but not Biden.
Going to great lengths to prove Biden has all his faculties, the press wants to use Putin’s comments to reinforce its image of Biden. Putin liked when Biden called Putin an “worthy adversary.” He liked Putin referring to U.S. and Russia and “two great powers,” something former President Barack Obama refused to do. Biden did well to get through the summit without any major gaffes, certainly not as the media portrays him as masterful. Biden received mixed reviews in the Democrat-friendly press, pushing Joe to act more aggressively with Putin. Biden got into a kerfuffle with CNN reporter Kaitlin Collins for questioning whether Putin was sincere about following up with anything addressed at the summit. Biden snapped at Kaitlin for questioning whether or no he got any commitments from Putin. Biden told Collins if she doesn’t understand U.S.-Russian relations, she should “get out of the business.” Joe later apologized to Collins for snapping at her.
Putin prefers Biden to Trump largely because Biden’s predictable. Whether Biden meets again with Putin anytime soon remains unknown. Biden tried to encourage Putin to show concern about his legacy, trying to improve relations with the West. “The leaders’ meeting fully justified the most optimistic expectations and delivered the most results of any in the last decades of the relationship between the powers,” said commentator Timfofey Bordachev wrote in Vzglyad, a pro-Putin news outlet. Russian officials had such low expectations going into the summit, they were pleasantly surprised when Biden acted cordially to Putin, showing his friendly side in the shortened summit. Biden ended the summit early when he figure he accomplished the goal of meeting with Putin in a positive, constructive atmosphere. There’s no question that Biden beat expectations in the U.S. and Russian press.
Coming out the summit, Biden got mixed reviews largely, as Collins tried to say, because he got no concessions from Putin on Ukrainian border security, arms control, Belarus, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, all of which the West values Putin’s input. When Biden refrained from criticizing Putin and the Kremlin, the Russian press noted the positive outcome. Russian specialist Kadri Liik at Berlin’s European Council on Foreign Relations, said Biden “is the first post-Cold War U.S. president who has adequate notions of what Russia is and what it wants, and what the United States can and cannot do about it.” Biden beat expectations but it’s absurd for the U.S. press to say that he proved for all to see his high level of cognitive functioning. What’s interesting to note is that Biden doesn’t need to compete with a younger man, only avoid criticism and set positive expectations for the future.
