Biden eyes allies’ support ahead of meeting Putin
The US will stand with its European allies against Russia, President Joe Biden has promised ahead of the first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month.
Biden will head to Europe on Wednesday, and is set to attend both the G7 and NATO summits as well as hold a highstakes meeting with the Russian leader in Geneva on June 16. The summit comes amid the biggest crisis in ties between the two countries in years, with tensions high over a spate of issues.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post published on Saturday, Biden promised to shore up Washington’s “democratic alliances” in the face of multiple crises and mounting threats from Moscow and Beijing.
“We are standing united to address Russia’s challenges to European security... and there will be no doubt about the resolve of the United States to defend our democratic values, which we cannot separate from our interests,” he wrote. “When we meet, I will again underscore the commitment of the United States, Europe and likeminded democracies to stand up for human rights and dignity,” Biden added.
Putin compares US govt with Soviet Union
Putin told reporters on Friday night the US is wrong to think that it is “powerful enough” to get away with threatening other countries, bringing in comparisons with the downfall of the former Soviet Union.
“We hear threats from the Congress, from other sources. It is all done within the context of the United States’ domestic political process,” Putin was quoted by news agency TASS as saying. “The people who do this, they probably assume that the US has such economic, military and political might that it can get away with that.”
Putin added, “The problem with empires is that they think they are powerful enough to make some mistakes. We will buy these [people], bully them, make a deal with them, give necklaces to them, threaten them with battleships. And this will solve all the problems. But problems accumulate. A moment comes when they cannot be solved anymore.”