What to expect from the Geneva summit

Grigory Yavlinsky’s Facebook page, 16.06.2021

Photo: Meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joseph Biden in Geneva. Photo by Mikhail Metzel / RIA Novosti

Joe Biden was “asked” at the G7 meeting and the NATO summit, to speak toughly with Putin. And so it will be: we will hear some new words about the “red lines” and about the price that the Kremlin will have to pay. There will be no cordial agreement and even partial convergence of positions on “sensitive” issues, as well as a joint press conference. Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden won’t even have lunch together. As a CNN source in the American delegation told CNN, “there will be no breaking of bread.”

However, apparently the negotiators themselves have been increasingly perceiving harsh words and the “unbreaking of bread” as a necessary ritual preceding a pragmatic conversation in the “Realpolitik” style. And Biden’s “Realpolitik” quite coincides with Putin’s understanding of the world. The US President, just a couple of months after taking office, declared: no matter what, the Russian President and I have common interests, we need to be able to “walk and chew gum at the same time”. Much has happened since then (further attacks on human rights and freedoms in Russia, the concentration of troops and saber rattling on the Russian-Ukrainian border, the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk), but on the whole, the “framework” of the Russian-American relations has remained the same.

This is exactly how Vladimir Putin treats democracy: it is such a gum that one can chew as much as one likes, but this should not interfere with “walking” – that is, building a corporate state – a “power”, arranging shady enterprises, tyrannising and destroying opponents. At the same time, relations with the Americans, as with the most influential in the world, can be maintained proceeding from common interests that are really sensitive for the United States. And there are many such interests. Here come the extension of the Strategic Arms Treaty by the Americans, and Joe Biden’s energy and climate policies directly related to the world oil prices, the situation in Central Asia and the arrangement of the system of power in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the American troops and the cyber threat from the Hackers’ International. The position of the American President, by and large, does not contradict this understanding of the world.

Diplomatic dialogue is definitely better than squabbles and endless claims. However, we should understand that freedom in Russia and our human dignity are our responsibility. And no Joe Biden, no West will do anything for us in this respect.

Read more: Grigory Yavlinsky: Putin and Biden – ”It takes one to know one”?, 24.03.2021

Grigory Yavlinsky

is Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO, Vice President of Liberal International, PhD in Economics, Professor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.