The White House confirmed Tuesday that President Joe Biden would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, after signaling weakness with his diplomatic relationship with Russia.
“The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the U.S.-Russia relationship,” the White House said in a statement. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Geneva, Switzerland on June 16, 2021.
News of the meeting breaks as a growing number of Republicans continue criticizing Biden for signaling weakness with Russia.
Senate Republicans expressed outrage by the news Biden’s State Department planned to waive economic sanctions allowing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to complete construction — a major geopolitical victory for Putin.
“This is exactly backward. It’s asinine. Four months into [his term], Joe Biden is crawling in bed with Putin and Russia and the enemies of America,” Sen. Ted Cruz said in a Fox News interview on Wednesday. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“If true, there are many Democrats who will need to start calling Joe Biden a Russian asset – if they want to be consistent,” wrote former Trump Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell on social media in response to news of the Nord Stream 2 waivers. “This would be a huge gift to Putin.”
Hackers in Russia also conducted a major ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline in the United States, crippling gas infrastructure on the East Coast. The Biden administration allowed the private company to pay near $5 million in ransom to get the pipeline back online.
In mid-April, Biden tried to sound a tough note at the beginning of his administration with Putin, describing him a killer in an interview with George Stephanopoulos.
But the president grew more measured after he spoke with Putin in a phone conversation before announcing limited new sanctions on some Russian economic interests.
“I was clear with President Putin that we could have gone further, but I chose not to do so. I chose to be proportionate,” Biden said during a speech at the White House, promising to “deescalate” tensions with Russia and proved with “thoughtful dialogue and diplomatic process.”
At the same time, Biden’s Pentagon scrapped a planned decision in mid-April to send two Navy destroyers to the Black Sea to signal support for Ukraine.
“This overall weakness is probably going to be a death sentence for this man,” Sen. Lindsay Graham said in April. “Because nobody in Russia is afraid of Joe Biden. Nobody in the world is afraid of Joe Biden and that’s dangerous for us here at home.”