Political commentator John Hayward has detailed for us the most important points of the meeting between Biden and Putin. Biden was widely criticized by the world’s media, who finally seem to realize that Biden’s weakness on the world stage is showing.
There are still exceptions.
The Meeting
Before the meeting, Biden gave Putin a slew of gifts and concessions; this included canceling US oil pipelines while advancing Russian ones, for which he received nothing in exchange. It was impossible to avoid the idea of a businesslike new China-Russia axis rising to world domination over a withering, conflicted, fatigued America.
Just as the White House rushed to temper expectations (and ditch its pre-summit language down the Memory Hole), Biden’s devoted media struggled to craft a story of the shockingly powerful US president putting the Russian tyrant in his place with an unexpectedly firm handshake.
Biden brought his flashcards into his meeting with Putin. pic.twitter.com/vrAUrpdmaX
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 16, 2021
The incredible scene in which Biden begged Putin to cease launching destructive cyberattacks (against some 16 important targets) will outlast any short-term wins the administration believes it achieved throughout that meeting.
Biden’s supporters believe he established a major boundary with Putin’s Russia in terms of cyberattacks. Since Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement days, his ultimatum may be the most pitiful thing a free-world president has uttered to an autocrat. Putin didn’t take the line as a intimidating threat, in the least.
President Biden just confused President Trump with Vladimir Putin after meeting with Putin for nearly FOUR hours. pic.twitter.com/tiTloHrebX
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) June 16, 2021
Ever since the dawn of the Information Era, every encounter between an American leader and a Russian leader has been for show. Despots have a habit of denying that they command, support, or encourage hackers. They always claim to despise cyberespionage more than anyone else and to be the worst victims.
It’s ludicrous because the US president demanded a halt to all state cyber warfare (and a crackdown on all rogue actors in past performances of this strange little show), and the dictator has pretended to acquiesce. Biden’s lowering of America’s demands will be noticed by the rest of the globe.
The Drawbacks
Leaders of both parties in the United States consistently misunderstand how much a figure like Putin gains simply by attending these summits; he obtains the status of international leader on par with the United States, China, and NATO.
All Putin needs to do now is appear to belong on the same platform as whoever is in the White House at the time. It’s a relatively low hurdle for him to overcome.
“If you don’t understand that,” Biden tells a reporter pushing him to explain how it was a constructive meeting with Putin if he still denies human rights abuses and cyber attacks, “you’re in the wrong business.”
pic.twitter.com/M4QmK7hKYd— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) June 16, 2021
Cast aside the photo opportunities and talking points from the Biden-Putin meeting and concentrate upon on joint declaration that followed, which stressed stability.
The true danger to western society is that Russia and China believe they also have a much superior model for providing sustainability than us, which is waning. Biden made no attempt to refute that story.
The Communist Chinese are pushing very hard for their kind of steely-eyed pragmatic authoritarianism to be seen as a far superior foundation for world stability than America’s raucous, dishonest democracy.
That argument is hammered home by Chinese authorities and state media on a daily basis. At the summit, Putin stuck to their script to a tee.
