When 78-year-old President Joe Biden meets June 16 with 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin, it could make-or-break U.S.-Russian relations. Biden must pull back from from his instincts to play “leader of the Free World,” a carryover from the Cold War that watched the U.S. and Soviet Union battle for global supremacy. Biden’s first go-around with summitry in Anchorage, Alaska March 18 ended in disaster, with 58-year-old Secretary of State and 44-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan offending the Chinese delegation. Blinken and Sullivan accused Beijing of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province in Western China. Blinken and Sullivan were blasted by Chinese senior diplomat Yang Jiechi, accusing the U.S of its own human rights abuses against African Americans, something Biden admitted to publicly April 21.
China hit back Blinken and Sullivan that the U.S. has no right with Biden admitting that the U.S. is a “systemically racist” nation to lecture other countries about human rights. Blinken said the Biden plans to raise human rights issues when he meets with Putin in Geneva. Biden and Blinken have been obsessed with 44-year-old jailed Russian dissident Alex Navalny, now serving a two-year-eight month sentence in a Russian penal colony. Biden and Blinken demanded Feb. 1 that Putin release Navlny from jail, before sent March 1 to a Russian penal colony. U.S. officials have complained since the 2016 presidential election that Putin was meddling in U.S. internal affairs. What more meddling in Russia’s internal affairs can you do than demanding that Putin release a known revolutionary from prisok. Biden and Blinken need to part the complaints at the door before meeting in Geneva.
Russia’s 71-year-old Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signaled two weeks before the summit that Putin would not hesitate to point about U.S. human rights abuses if Biden wants to play the name-calling game. Like Jiechi told Blinken and Sullivan about U.S. treatment of African Americans, Lavrov’s prepared, if necessary, to expose the world to the U.S. treatment of Capitol Hill rioters, many of whom have been handed long sentences. “We are ready to talk. We have no taboo topics. We will discuss whatever we think is necessary. We will be ready to answer the questions that the American side will raise. This also applies to human rights,” Lavrov said. “For example, we are following with interest the persecution of those persons who are accused of the riots on Jan. 6 this year in Washington, D.C.,” Lavrov said, warning Blinken to not push the human rights issue.
Biden said over the Memorial Day weekend he would press Putin on human rights, including persecuting social justice activists Alexi Navalny. To Putin, Navalny is a dangerous revolutionary who runs a clandestine nationwide group trying to see Putin ousted from office. “A lot of really interesting things are happening from the point of view of the rights of opposition and protecting those rights,” Lavrov said, reminding the U.S. delegation not to play the human rights game. “I’m meeting with President Putin in a couple weeks in Geneva, making it clear we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights,” Biden said, signaling, without some urgent about-face, the Geneva summit will end up like Anchorage. With geopolitical events unstable in Ukraine, the last thing Biden wants to do with Putin is play a heavy hand at the upcoming Geneva summit.
Biden’s needs to clear the air with Putin after calling him a “soulless killer” March 16, prompting Putin to challenge Biden to an Internet debate. Putin said he knows Putin well but apparently he doesn’t know him that well because he deeply offended him. Threatening Putin with more sanctions will boomerang at a time when Biden needs to develop linkage with U.S. adversaries to deal with emerging global threats. Biden needs to park his criticism at the door and find common ground with the Russian Federation. Bringing up Navalny would be a non-starter, prompting Putin to raise human rights abuses in the United States. Biden will no doubt bring up Russian-based cyberattacks, including SolarWinds network management software, Colonial Pipeline and, more recently, JBS Brazilian-based meat packer, supplying about 20% of the U.S. beef, pork and poultry.
If Biden hopes to mend fences with Putin he needs to stop talking about human rights abuses and find common ground, especially with cracking down on Russian-based hackers. Putin has denied any involvement by the Russian government but the rasomware attacks just keep coming, leaving vital U.S. industries vulnerable to attack. No one in European Union [EU] or NATO want a confrontation with the Russian Federation. When Biden said he was ready to lead the Free World Dec. 29, 2020, 62-year-old Brussels-based European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would speak for itself. Since taking office Jan. 20, Biden and Blinken have done practically everything to alienate China and Russia, spending too much time talking about human rights. Biden should take a lessor from former President Donald Trump would found a way to get along with U.S. foes.
