Hopes were high when US President Joe Biden (78) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (68) shook hands in Geneva on June 16. It was to be a beginning for a new friendly relationship, a step towards disarmament.
But the spirit of Geneva, this hope that was sprayed, has already fizzled out. This week, Biden sharply criticized Putin for the growing number of cyberattacks from Russia. “He has a real problem, he sits at the head of an economy that has nuclear weapons and oil wells and nothing else,” said Biden during a visit to the office of US intelligence coordinator Avril Haines (51).
Warning of war
Biden went on to say of Putin: “He knows that he is in trouble, which in my opinion makes him even more dangerous.” However, he sees his own secret services as superior to those of Russia. Biden even warned of a real war with a great power.
The Kremlin does not like such accusations. Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov (53) now replies that the US president is “fundamentally wrong” and that Russia is a “very responsible nuclear power”. Biden’s statements are “incorrect knowledge and a misjudgment of modern Russia”.
Talks in Geneva this week
Notwithstanding these high-level verbal battles, the deputy foreign ministers of both countries met on Wednesday at the US embassy in Geneva to negotiate disarmament. It is about questions of “strategic stability”. This means a balance of deterrence. For both sides, the consequences of a military attack with nuclear weapons are so negative that they have no incentive to start such a conflict.
The talks are seen as an important signal for global security. The basis is the only remaining major arms control agreement between the United States and Russia: the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty.
But, according to Biden’s statements, Peskow is dampening expectations that the two nuclear powers will rapidly converge. It would be difficult for the US to be called a partner. The United States is more of an “adversary” or a “face to face”. (gf)