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Biden’s efforts to stabilize a volatile relationship with Russia have run into the same road block – Putin – that his recent predecessors have faced.
- President Joe Biden is managing a fraught relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- Biden’s vow to make Putin a “pariah” on the world stage and label him a war criminal could be risky.
- Others say Biden’s harsh rhetoric was an honest reaction to the unprovoked assault on Ukraine.
WASHINGTON – When President Joe Biden met Vladimir Putin at an 18th century villa in Geneva last June for a three-hour tête-à-tête, he set aside concerns that the Russian president might view the high-profile meeting as a reward.
Biden, who sees foreign policy as the logical extension of personal relationships, claimed no illusions about Putin’s ambitions, including his designs on Ukraine. The president, after all, famously bragged about having told Putin he doesn’t have a soul.
