The world’s eyes are on Geneva this June 16 as a historic summit takes place between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Relations between the two countries could hardly be worse, so why are they meeting? We talk to an American political analyst and Russian journalist based in Geneva for their take on this summit. Ukraine, Belarus, Syria, Navalny, cyberattacks and interference in US elections: the list of Western problems with Russia is long. Russia also has its perennial problems with the West, including sanctions which Biden tightened in April and which are hitting the Russian economy. Former US President Donald Trump was accused of being too close to Putin, and Biden’s rhetoric has been much tougher. He has even called Putin a “killer”, to which the Russian president replied that “it takes one to know one”. Some people might be surprised that they are meeting at all. Not so surprising David Sylvan, an American political scientist at the Graduate...
