This has been the tense relationship between Biden and Putin 3:48
Brussels and Geneva (CNN) -
US President Joe Biden is taking advantage of the time away from the summit meetings on his European tour this week to make intensive preparations ahead of his talks with Vladimir Putin, according to officials, while working. to avoid the obstacles his predecessors faced in their confrontations with Russia's leader. Most of his formal meetings this week have started after noon, leaving the mornings free for consultations with advisers. He has held lengthy preparation sessions with senior officials, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, to discuss the wide range of issues he plans to raise with Putin, from cyberattacks to Syria to Ukraine.
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The president has also asked foreign G7 leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for feedback as he prepares for the meeting in Geneva, according to people familiar with the talks.
Putin even emerged as a talking point during his tea with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, Biden told reporters, stating that she "wanted to know" about Russia's president.
As some NATO allies had raised concerns about the view of Biden's summit with Putin, Sullivan said that Biden would speak privately with the leaders "about what he intends to talk to Putin about" during a meeting of the eastern defense alliance. Monday.
Joe Biden arrives at NATO for his first visit as president
"He will have the opportunity to listen to them, in this way he will go to Geneva with the full support and solidarity of all our NATO allies," Sullivan told reporters at Air Force One on Sunday.
Sullivan specifically highlighted Biden's meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday as an opportunity to "compare notes."
It's all part of the tense preparation for the president's first meeting with an American adversary during his tenure, and the scene in Switzerland begins to reflect the mood inside the White House.
Security in Geneva is being tightened ahead of Wednesday's summit.
La Grange Park, a park within Geneva with an 18th-century villa where the two leaders will hold their meetings, has been completely closed to the public since last week and will remain that way at least until Friday.
Barbed wire has been placed along the perimeter of the park, as well as in the street in some areas leading to the park entrance.
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Now that Biden becomes the fifth US president that Putin has met, officials want Biden to be prepared to deal with their tactics, including his well-known habit of blaming the US for debates. about bad practices in Russia.
Biden has told his aides that he believes Putin will respond to bluntness during their conversations and wants to be prepared to deliver a frank message.
He's too prepared!
Biden's wife, First Lady Jill Biden, exclaimed last week when asked if her husband was prepared for his meeting with Putin.
Along with Merkel, Biden has opened the door for input from other key allies in bilateral meetings and talks on the sidelines in recent days.
The idea serves a dual purpose, the aides said: While Biden's decades in foreign policy give him security in his approach, he sees the value of the opinions of others who have had similar meetings with Russia's leader.
Biden also sees merit in making allies feel part of his process, as he strives to reassure them of his intentions while bringing them closer, as part of a clear US effort to get to the meeting with Putin. following public displays of unity among Western allies, according to a person familiar with the process.
But officials say Biden is also preparing to discuss areas of potential mutual concern with Putin, charting a potential path to advance a relationship that he acknowledged Sunday was at a low point.
There are obvious issues, ranging from Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear deal to the nuclear capabilities of both nations, where communication and a working relationship are essential.
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But there are also more gradual steps that Biden can propose to establish a baseline between a new administration and a historic enemy, said a person familiar with the preparation.
The goal is not any kind of dramatic breakthrough, and both Biden and his aides have been careful to make it clear that nothing of the kind is expected.
Instead, officials say Biden wants to consider smaller steps that provide a signal to establish a baseline in the effort to move toward a more "stable and predictable" relationship, the current goal stated by Biden and his team.
The attempt to deny Putin a platform
Biden does not plan to hold a joint press conference with Putin after the summit, but prefers to speak to journalists alone.
Officials say Russia lobbied for a joint press conference during the summit negotiations.
But the United States resisted because it did not want to give Putin a platform like the one it had after the summit with President Donald Trump in Helsinki.
The officials also said they were aware of Putin's desire to appear to have taken advantage of a US president, and wanted to avoid a situation that turned into public competition.
"This is not a contest over who can do better at a press conference or try to embarrass the other," Biden said Sunday to explain the decision.
Biden will meet Putin in two sessions, one with a smaller group and one with a larger contingent of aides, according to a White House official.
Work is still being done with Russia to determine the exact nature of each meeting, or whether Biden will meet with Putin alone without the presence of note-takers.
Preparations and messages around the summit have not been entirely smooth.
Some were surprised on Sunday when Biden appeared to suggest that he would be open to a cybercriminal exchange with Russia, a request Putin had made in an earlier interview with the Russian state news agency TASS.
Asked during a press conference whether Biden would be "open to that kind of exchange with Vladimir Putin," Biden answered affirmatively: "Yes," he said.
"If there are crimes committed against Russia, and the people who commit those crimes are being sheltered in the United States, I promise to hold them accountable."
For Putin's staunch critic Bill Browder, the comment reminded him of Putin's suggestion in 2018, during their joint press conference in Helsinki with Trump, that Russia could extradite criminals to the United States if this country made available to the United States. Russia to Americans for questioning, including Browder.
"I hope Biden is not planning to offer Putin to me in Geneva in the same way that Trump did in Helsinki," Browder wrote on Twitter, calling Biden's comments "a bit concerning."
Sullivan later tried to clear up Biden's comments, saying the president was "not saying, 'I'm going to trade cybercriminals.'
“What I was saying is that if Vladimir Putin wants to come and say, 'I'm prepared to ensure that cybercriminals are held accountable,' Joe Biden is perfectly willing to come forward and say that cybercriminals will be held accountable in America, because they already are. ", He said.
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Biden is expected to release "some pretty tough messages"
The president has been skeptical of Putin for decades.
After former President George W. Bush met Putin in Slovenia in June 2001, Bush said he looked him in the eye and got "a glimpse of his soul."
Biden, then a senator and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, responded to those comments by saying: “I don't trust Putin.
Let's hope the president was more stylistic than serious.
Biden brought a large group of helpers with him on his first trip abroad.
He traveled with Blinken aboard Air Force One to Cornwall, although the Secretary of State left earlier for Brussels in his own plane.
Also on the trip is Sullivan, who has accompanied Biden on the peaks.
West Wing senior advisers Jen O'Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon and Bruce Reed travel with Biden, as do press secretary Jen Psaki and communications director Kate Bedingfield.
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Also traveling are a number of National Security Council (NSC) officials, including NSC Chief of Staff Yohannes Abraham, Deputy National Security Counselor Daleep Singh, NSC Senior Director of Speech Writing, Carlyn Reichel, and Senior Director for Europe, Amanda Sloat.
Wednesday's summit between Biden and Putin, and its predictable outcome, was the subject of considerable conversation among other leaders gathered at NATO headquarters on Monday.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Biden "will bring some pretty tough messages to President Putin over the course of the next few days," a comment suggesting that he, too, had discussed the summit with Biden during their back-to-back days of receptions. and sessions he organized in the first part of Biden's trip.
Vladimir Putin