US-Russia standoff to take centre stage as Biden and Putin agree meeting

Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will meet in Geneva next month, the White House announced on Tuesday in an attempt to normalise US-Russian relations after years of tension over election interference and cyber attack allegations.

The two leaders will "discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the US-Russia relationship" during the June 16 meeting, the White House said.

The day-long summit in Switzerland is expected to focus on nuclear arms control, Russian interference in US elections, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.

The highly anticipated meeting will come as Mr Biden makes his debut on the international stage in early June with an in-person trip to the UK for the G7 summit and meetings with Nato and EU allies in Brussels.

The meeting with Mr Putin offers a key test of Mr Biden's early presidency, after he vowed to take an aggressive stance on Russia.

US officials have indicated they do not expect the Geneva summit to produce any major breakthroughs but the administration hopes establishing a clear channel of communication with Moscow will avoid dangerous escalations.

In its own statement, the Kremlin said the meeting would discuss "Russian-American relations, problems of strategic stability, as well as topical issues on the international agenda, including interaction in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the settlement of regional conflicts".

Relations between Washington and Moscow have deteriorated since Mr Biden took office in January. The two leaders have spoken twice on the phone.

Mr Biden said he made clear in his first call to Mr Putin that he would be taking a radically different approach to Moscow than his predecessor Donald Trump, who enjoyed warm personal relations with the Russian leader.

Mr Biden took Mr Putin to task over Russian interference in last year's presidential election and allegations that the Kremlin was behind a hacking campaign - commonly referred to as the SolarWinds breach - in which at least nine US agencies were breached.

The US president has also criticised Russia for the arrest and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who returned to Russia days before Mr Biden's inauguration and was quickly arrested.

In March, the Biden administration announced sanctions against several mid-level and senior Russian officials and businesses over a nearly fatal nerve-agent attack on Mr Navalny and his subsequent imprisonment.

Last month, the administration announced it was expelling 10 Russian diplomats and sanctioning dozens of Russian companies and individuals in response to the SolarWinds hack and election interference allegations.

During an interview in March, Mr Biden called Mr Putin a killer and said he would "pay a price" for his attempt to meddle in the 2020 election.

In response, Russia recalled its ambassador to the US for the first time in more than 20 years. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Biden's remark demonstrated he "definitely does not want to improve relations" with Russia, calling the relationship "very bad."

But even as Mr Biden has confronted Russia on several fronts, the president acknowledged that he has held back on taking tougher action in an attempt to leave the door open for cooperation.

To prepare the ground for the Geneva summit, the US Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Iceland last week.

The meeting came a day after news broke that the Biden administration would waive sanctions that had been delaying the completion of Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany.

Mr Biden has previously said he opposes the $11bn (£7.8bn) pipeline and the decision was met with fierce criticism by Republicans, and even some Democrats, amid fears it will increase European states' dependency on Russia.

A key focus of the summit will be working on a long-lasting pact over the two nations' nuclear arsenals. Mr Biden and Mr Puitn have already agreed to a five-year extension of the New START nuclear nonproliferation treaty but hope to commit to a more lasting agreement.

Mr Biden has previously met the Russian president while serving as Barack Obama's Vice President, including a 2011 trip to Moscow.

Mr Biden later famously declared that he had told Mr Putin to his face: "I don't think you have a soul." In Mr Biden's telling, Mr Putin smiled and responded: “We understand one another.”