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World Watches the Biden-Putin Summit; President Biden Well- Informed About Putin's Behavior; E.U. Commission Underline Where They Can Agree with China; China Show its Military Force in Taiwan; Israel and Hamas War Reignited; President Biden Tells Allies, America Is Back; Biden And Putin Begin High-Stakes Meeting In Geneva Soon; Lessons Learned From Trump-Putin Summit; China Readies For Return To Space. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 16, 2021 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us both in the United States and around the world. My name is Fred Pleitgen in Geneva in Switzerland with our special coverage of the summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden.

Any moment now, the Russian president will take off for Switzerland, where he is expected to land in about three hours. That's the flight time it takes. Here in Geneva, he and the U.S. President will hold their first face to face summit as equals, as head of states of their respective countries.

Vladimir Putin is scheduled to arrive at the Lakeside Villa La Grange first. He and Biden will pose for photos with the Swiss president before the talks begin.

During round one, President Biden and Putin will be flanked by their top diplomats, but there are no plans for a shared meal, meaning it will be a lunch time meeting with no lunch, and could stretch into dinnertime without dinner. The timing there certainly very flexible.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Biden arriving in Geneva for the main event, in less than 24 hours, he'll sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the world will be watching.

UNKNOWN: Mr. President, are you ready for tomorrow?

UNKNOWN: Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

COLLINS: White house officials are already lowering expectations for the outcome, telling reporters they aren't expecting a big set of deliverables. The White House says, the notoriously late Russian leader will arrive to the venue before Biden, and the two will at first meet with just one staffer each in the room before being joined by a large delegation.

The venue for the historic summit, an 18th century villa, a reminder of this 1985 meeting also in Geneva, between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. But if this was Reagan's mantra --

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The maxim is, doveryai, no proveryai, trust but verify.

COLLINS: Biden is offering his own version.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I verify first and then trust, in other words, everything would have to be shown to actually be occurring. It's not about trusting, you know, it's about agreeing.

COLLINS: Although it will be Biden's first meeting with Putin, since taking office, it is far from their first face-to-face.

BIDEN: I have met with him, he's bright, he's tough, and I have found that he is a, as they say, when we used to play ball, a worthy adversary.

COLLINS: Biden has met with at least three Soviet leaders and two Russian presidents in his career. Then Vice President Biden took aim at Putin in Munich in 2015 after Russia illegally seized Crimea from Ukraine.

BIDEN: America and Europe are being tested, President Putin, he has to understand that as he has changed, so has our focused.

COLLINS: White House aides are confident that this summit with Putin will be nothing like the last one the world watched with a U.S. president.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I have president Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be.

COLLINS: Then president Trump sided with Russia over U.S. intelligence on election interference.

TRUMP: I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.

COLLINS: Sources say, Biden plans to confront Putin over election interference, ransomware attacks, detained Americans and human rights.

BIDEN: I'm going to make clear to President Putin that there are areas where we can cooperate if he chooses, and if he chooses not to cooperate and acts in a way that he has in the past, relative to cybersecurity, and some other activities, then we will respond.

COLLINS: But in his first interview with a U.S. outlet in three years, Putin is already telegraphing his own response.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have been accused of all kinds of things, election interference, cyberattacks and so on and so forth, and not once, not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS (on camera): And the White House says they expect President Biden and President Putin to just meet for about four to five hours tomorrow. Of course, that is subject to change depending on how those meetings are going.

[03:05:03]

One thing that we do know, is they say nothing is off the table when it comes to topics, but when it comes to actually what's on the table, there are not going to be any shared meals between the two delegations, which does speak to the level of formality that the White House is bringing to these first talks with Putin.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN, traveling with the president in Geneva.

PLEITGEN: And you know, folks, Kaitlan opened her report with some of the history in Geneva and the summits with that summit in 1985 between Mikhail Gorbachev and then President Ronald Reagan.

We actually managed to get the original press pack from that 1985 summit between Reagan and Gorbachev. Obviously very historic. It begins with a personal letter by Ronald Reagan to the press that was traveling with him to that summit. And begins the very telling sentence which I think also applies for today.

Our trip to Geneva is one of the most important of my presidency. He writes then. This was brought to us by our senior producer Emily Rust, and her dad was part of the CNN team covering it back then, my dad was actually part of the ARD German TV team covering it back then. So, a lot of history for all of us with that summit. And of course, a historic day today.

And we're going to cover it from all angles. And we have Natasha Bertrand who has been covering all angles of what's been going on, and especially Joe Biden's preparation for the summit. very, very important when you are dealing with Vladimir Putin.

Talking to Natasha now. Natasha, tell me some of the things that President Biden has been doing to prepare for Vladimir Putin, because he's known to try and derail meetings like this one and take the initiative.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Fred. So, he's been preparing very intensively for the summit. He's been meeting with his advisers pretty much every morning ahead of these meetings with foreign leaders, with the G7 leaders, with E.U. leaders in the spare time that he has to prepare for the summit.

He's been huddling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, with the national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and of course he's been consulting directly with these foreign leaders at the G7 and E.U. leaders about what will be on the agenda for this summit.

That is an attempt by the White House, by the Biden administration to really incorporate all of the allies into the planning for this summit and make them feel included, get all of their input into what should be on the agenda, because of course Russia does pose a threat to Europe, and Europe feels that it is one of the biggest threats that they face.

So, Biden has been preparing in that way. And he's also met with Russia experts. Russia experts, a series of top Russia experts came to the White House just before he left on this trip to brief him and to tell him about their experiences with Vladimir Putin and what to expect from the notoriously unpredictable Russian leader.

So, all of these things are factoring into Joe Biden's preparation here. Officials tell us that he is not necessarily over prepared. That he does have a lot of foreign policy experience obviously and he has met with Vladimir Putin before. But going into the summit, he does want to be prepared for anything that the Russian leader could throw at him.

PLEITGEN: And really quickly, of course, one of the -- there is very few tangibles that people are expecting, but one of the things that is very high on the agenda is possible prisoner swaps of U.S. citizens being held in Russia and Russian citizens being held in the U.S. Any word on what could be achieved there?

BERTRAND: Expectations are pretty low there as well. There are two former U.S. marines that are being held in Russia on what the U.S. says are Trumped up charges. And each have been sentenced in Russia to upwards of a decade in prison for these charges. And the Russians in turn are asking for the U.S. to turn over notorious Russian arms dealer named Viktor Bout.

And of course, the U.S. sees that as a very unequal swap. It's something that they don't want to necessarily encourage in the future, the Russians taking these Americans prisoner essentially so that they can be exchanged for Russian criminals, very hard and Russian criminals here.

So, that will certainly be a topic of discussion. The president is expected to raise the issue of these imprisoned Americans with the Russian leader. And of course, the parents of these American prisoners in Russia are pleading with the president to please make the best possible case to safely return them home. But it is not an area where U.S. officials are overly optimistic about a result.

PLEITGEN: Thank you very much, Natasha. I know you will be covering of course all the events for us throughout the day.

And you know, President Biden will enter the summit with Russia's president after a display of unity with his western allies. On Tuesday, Mr. Biden met with E.U. leaders in Brussels to renew their Transatlantic Partnership, of course have been quite shaken in the Trump years.

And for more on this, let's bring in David Herszenhorn, he is the chief Brussels correspondent for Politico. How much do you think, David, this new show of unity will mean for President Biden when he faces off with Vladimir Putin?

[03:10:03]

DAVID HERSZENHORN, CHIEF BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well there is no question that it gives him a boost. He comes in with the Russian side knowing that he's really got the western world behind him. I mean, in fact, the Europeans are really looking forward to this meeting. There is a general sense that until Washington and Moscow reach some sort of agreement on a new type of conversation, a new type of relationship, that everybody else is stuck in what the commission, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen yesterday described as a downward spiral in relations with Russia.

So they are looking to Biden to really reset things with Vladimir Putin, at least start some kind of a new dialog hoping that everybody then follows along.

PLEITGEN: Well, one of the things that we know about Europe is that it isn't really totally united on the way to deal with Russia. Obviously, you have the Germans on one side who have big business relations with the Russians and generally a lot of ties, and then you have eastern European countries who obviously have all sorts of different concerns.

Are there some misgivings on the part of a, or quizzy (Ph) feelings on the part the eastern European states especially after President Biden decided not to sanction Nord Stream 2 pipeline ahead of the summit?

HERSZENHORN: Well, President Biden met with the leaders of the three Baltic nations, obviously who lived for decades under repressive Soviet rule, and the message from them was be tough. So, there is no question that they want Biden to hold his ground, to not repeat what we saw in Helsinki with Donald Trump sort of agreeing with everything Putin said and giving him the benefit of the doubt.

But as long as he is tough, they have faith in him at this point. And because there are so many different interests across Europe, obviously the Baltics and Poland want to be tougher, they're right on the border, they recognize that, but they also know that for Germany, for Italy, for all the European countries that have and want to renew and strengthen business ties with Russia, that they need to get to a better place.

As long as there are sanctions as main topic of conversation, they know nothing really works in this relationship. So, apprehension, for sure, especially because as you know the Russians are the best prepared when it comes to foreign policy and diplomacy. Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister an expert at this. Vladimir Putin

now on his fifth U.S. president. He has done this many times before. And we know he is not above using kind of hybrid tactics. He had a dog waiting for Angela Merkel at one meeting knowing she doesn't like dogs. But here, we know that in fact, Biden too is a very experienced statesman and he's done this before himself. So not quite in this format, at these high stakes level, but it will be quite a show.

PLEITGEN: You know, David, we've been talking a lot about the cyber sphere, and obviously some of the attacks that, you know, the U.S. blames on Russia, as far as the United States is concerned. But one of the things that we talk less about which is really important is some of the alleged Russian cyberattacks, disinformation, also against European and European Union countries.

And not only countries, quite frankly. You also at this point in time, you have a big disinformation campaign, the European Union alleges, for instance, against mRNA vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic. How important is that topic for European allies? What do they want the Biden administration to do?

And do they believe that there is anything that can be done. Because one of the things that the Russians seem to embrace is those tactics, of disinformation, of, not necessarily cyberwarfare but certainly cyber action as sort of a great equalizer considering that they are economically a lot weaker than Europe and the United States.

HERSZENHORN: This kind of disinformation is a big concern for the Europeans. And one of the commission Vice President (Inaudible) has taken the forefront here. What they want Biden to say is cut it out. Stop or there will be reprisals. There will be consequences for doing this kind of stuff, whether it's disinformation from social media, whether it's meddling in elections. There is no question that the Russians are masters of this.

It's not always the Kremlin. Sometimes its proxies. But in fact, they also know that it has gotten dangerous. We've seen power grids in Ukraine shut down, just as we've seen attacks on infrastructure in the United States and elsewhere. So, the Europeans are very much attuned into this. They very again want Biden to take a tough line letting Vladimir Putin know hey, they're on to this, they know where it comes from, they know where the troll farms are, they know how this is done, and they're not going to take it.

PLEITGEN: David Herszenhorn, very -- thank you much for joining us. And I can't wait to read your article on the summit. And with that, I'll going to hand it back to Rosemary Church who is in Atlanta. Of course, there are a lot of other things going on today. But we will of course have the latest from the preparations for the summit and how things unfold as they unfold.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks so much, Fred. We'll come back to you very soon.

China is making military moves over the Strait of Taiwan. Dozens of war planes in the sky. Is Beijing sending a message after criticism from the G7? We will have a live report from Taipei. That's next.

Plus, Israel's military launches new air strikes into Gaza. The first strikes under Naftali Bennett's new government, what prompted the attack, we will have a live report on that as well. Back in just a moment.

[03:15:04]

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CHURCH (on camera): Welcome back, everyone. Well the leader of the European Union confirms China was a large part of the discussions at the recent G7 summit, and for its part, China blasted a summit communique as a serious violation of international relations.

Beijing took issue in part with the G7 condemning recent tensions in the Taiwan Strait. The president of the E.U. says there are some areas where the block can work with China, and other areas where it must speak up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: China has been a big topic at G7. So they are extensively, we have been discussing it and we are very clearly aligned that the European Union says yes, there are ways where we cooperate with China, for example, on the common goal to fight climate change.

[03:20:06]

We are strong economic competitors without any question. If it comes to the system itself, if it comes to human rights and human dignity, we are systemic rivals without any question. And it was very clear in G7 that we have to speak up on that. That we have to call on that and be very clear that this is the main issue that clearly divides us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): But China didn't just express its anger in words. It also did it in the sky.

So let's bring in Will Ripley, he joins us live from Taipei. Good to see you, Will. So what message was China trying to send via these 28 warplanes?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rosemary. That is always the interesting thing when China conducts one of these acts of military intimidation. And this one really is unprecedented, it's the biggest since Taiwan started keeping records of this kind of thing last year. Because they are deliberately ambiguous. They keep it in the gray zone, if you will.

Yes, you heard that messaging from China's ministry of foreign affairs and the Chinese embassy in London blasting that G7 communique 48 hours before this act of military intimidation, but there is no comment from the Chinese defense ministry, and there were other activities here on the island of Taiwan that could have been precursors to this.

Before the G7 communique there was on June 6th when three U.S. senators landed here in Taipei on a giant C-17 transport jet, a huge military aircraft, the exact kind of imagery that analysts have told me could be seen as a humiliating act of defiance of Beijing's territorial claims over Taiwan.

The self-governing island is both an example of a Chinese speaking democracy, but the government here is not recognized by Beijing. They say this is their territory. And as Taiwan, you know, appears to be moving closer to the United States, Beijing is conducting these acts of military intimidation to say that they will not rule out preventing separation by force.

CHURCH: And -- all right. I think Will Ripley, thank you very much, joining us from Taipei. I appreciate it.

Well, Kim Jong-un says conditions in his country have gotten worse since the start of 2021. Even though the country's economy has improved overall. Speaking during a meeting of the country's ruling workers party, the North Korean leader called for measures to tackle the, quote, "tense food situation" caused by last year's typhoon.

Well now to developing news from the Middle East. Israel's military says its struck targets in Gaza with airstrikes in response to incendiary balloons it says sparked fires in Israel. And just take a look at this new video showing the attack. This is the first major flare-up since a ceasefire ended 11 days of deadly fighting last month between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The strikes come just days after Naftali Bennett took over as Israel's prime minister.

And CNN's Hadas Gold joins me now from Jerusalem. Good to see you, Hadas. So, what is the latest on this Israeli air strikes and could they trigger renewed violence in the region?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, the Israeli military says they launched these strikes after Hamas militants sent over incendiary balloons from Gaza over the border into Israel. They say that these balloons caused at least 20 different fires in southern Israel. Now the Israeli military saying that overnight, they struck what they called a Hamas military complexes and meeting places, according to the Palestinian media.

They say that these strikes caused material damages in two separate places but no casualties. Now this was a major, as you said, a move by this new government that was just sworn in on Sunday, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. And there was a question about what would this new government do. Should there be any sort of action taken by Hamas towards Israel after the conflict last month, that 11-day conflict?

There is a ceasefire in place, but as you can see it's a rather tenuous ceasefire. Now there are reports that Naftali Bennett while he was in government under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pushed Netanyahu and the government to take a stronger position in reaction to these incendiary balloons that are -- it's not uncommon for them to be sent over, but we don't often see the Israeli military necessarily responding with airstrikes to these types of balloons.

But the feeling that I got from sources from Israeli officials after the conflict last month was that Israel feels it's in its new position and it's taking a harder line now against such actions as incendiary balloons and that we should expect that this will be the reaction like this.

That if these balloons get sent over and they start fires, Israel will respond potentially with air strikes.

[03:24:58]

Now, of course, this is all happening as all these balloons were sent over before and as a right-wing march was expected to take place yesterday in Jerusalem. This is called the flag march and it's often attended by right-wing Jewish groups celebrating when Israel took control of the western wall in east Jerusalem in the 1967 war.

It's an annual march that takes place every year. It was actually supposed to take place last month, but it was canceled at the last minute as it was getting underway because that was when Hamas started firing rockets towards Jerusalem, helping to trigger that 11-day conflict.

But under the last government, they rescheduled it for Tuesday and one of actually the first moves by the Naftali Bennett government was to allow this march to continue to take place despite of course the very high tensions that remain especially in east Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

Now, one of the most controversial aspects of this march was that it was going to pass by and spend some time in front of the Damascus gate, this is the main entrance for Muslim worshippers into the old city, at least directly into the Muslim quarter of the old city.

Now the police did block the entrance to Damascus gate, they did not allow the marchers to go through. But thousands of these marchers arrived. I was there. They were dancing and waving Israeli flags and they were shouting some incendiary slogans such as Jerusalem is ours. Jerusalem is our home. Some of them are even chanting things like death to Arabs.

So of course, this is seen as a very provocative move. The march was condemned by the Palestinian prime minister and we did hear from the Hamas spokesperson warning that such a march would cause a reaction. We saw those balloons being sent over and we saw the Israeli airstrikes in response. Now of course the question is what will come out of this? Does the ceasefire now hold what we see? Any more action from Hamas or from the Israeli military. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. Hadas Gold joining us live from Jerusalem, many thanks. Well still to come, Mr. Biden enters his summit with Vladimir Putin,

appearing united with his European allies. We are live from Brussels, that's next.

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[03:30:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: As Americans, we are committed. We have never fully left, but we are reassuring the faction. It's overwhelmingly in the interest of the United States of America to have a great relationship with NATO and the E.U. I have a very different view than my predecessor. So, I'm looking forward to talk to you all about what I am about to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN (on camera): That was President Joe Biden on Tuesday at the European Union in Brussels, where he came there to reaffirm the transatlantic partnership and of course America's leadership in the transatlantic partnership. I want to get to Melissa Bell, right now who joins me from Brussels. And Melissa, how important do you think it was for President Biden to come there to that E.U. meeting and also reaffirm, as he put it, that America is back?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Oh, I think for Europeans it was music to their ears. First of all, I think Fred, it's important to note that between what happened with NATO on Monday and what happened at the bilateral between the European Union and the United States here yesterday, it was that reaffirmation of the fact that of course, there can be divisions, there can be disagreements, but compromises can be found as they were found for instance on China.

But you're right. I think more fundamentally, it's really those words that Joe Biden spoke here yesterday alongside the European leaders about the phony populism that had emerged, about the need to fight it, about the fact that until a few years ago he shared the old values of that transatlantic alliance hadn't been questioned. And now that they had, he was really back to tell Europeans that they are here once again and were involved in a common fight to defend them. And I think, it was an important show of force, especially ahead of what you are covering today.

PLEITGEN: Thank you very much, Melissa Bell there in Brussels. And the U.S. President plans to address of course, Russia's aggression against Ukraine and his conversation with Vladimir Putin. President Biden wrote a recent op-ed in the Washington Post saying he won't leave any doubt about the U.S.'s resolve to defend democracy.

Russia annex Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and eastern Ukraine has been locked in a bitter standoff between government forces and Russian- backed separatists for almost the same amount of time. Earlier, I spoke to the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor for his take.

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WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE, VICE PRESIDENT STRATEGIC STABILITY AND SECURITY, U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE: I think Ukraine is going to be a very important topic in the summit. Again, President Biden is going to lay out where the Russians, in particular Putin, have caused problems. And one of the big problems is that they have cause of course, is when they invaded Ukraine and they tried to annex, illegally annexed part of Ukraine in Crimea.

So, it's clearly going to be an issue. As long as the Russians are occupying part of their neighbor, that's going to be very difficult to reestablish any kind of rules of the road, any kind of predictability, any kind of stability that the president has been talking about.

So, I think Ukraine will be a serious topic and Ukrainians of course, are watching this very carefully. They were pleased, (inaudible) that President Biden did call President Zelensky before meeting President Putin later on today.

PLEITGEN: I think one of the interesting things that we've seen in the past, this is you know, if we look at the basically escalating conflict between the U.S. and Russia, it's essentially been going on since 2012, and in 2014 you had all the events around and Ukraine, around Crimea. So far, as far as sanctions have been concerned, other actions had been concerned it really seems as though Vladimir Putin has been impervious to pressure and has continued to fuel that conflict.

[03:35:06]

Do you think that there's anything that President Biden could do to make Vladimir Putin change course?

TAYLOR: Yes, I do. I think there are things that the United States can do, President Biden can do, and I believe that the sanctions that have been imposed so far for the actions in Ukraine actually have been effective. Since the sanctions were put on, the Russians have not moved further into Ukraine. They have not gone further into Ukraine as people worried they might.

Because they know that these sanctions can be worse. There are more sanctions that can be imposed on Russia that they are really concerned about. That's not the only thing of course that the president can do. We can clearly support Ukraine in militarily, politically, diplomatically. One thing that might change the Russian attitude toward Ukraine in particular is if the United States were to join those negotiations on how to get sovereignty, how to remove Russians from (inaudible) in Crimea. If the United States were to join those negotiations, as President Zelensky actually has invited, then there might be a change in the Russian attitude and negotiating posture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: Former Ambassador William Taylor there speaking to me earlier. And coming up on CNN, what the Biden administration has learned from President Trump's last meeting with Vladimir Putin, and what one diplomat who was there has to say about the encounter. That's coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FIONA HILL, FORMER OFFICIAL NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPECIALIZING IN SOVIET, RUSSIAN AND EUROPEAN AFFAIRS: I just thought let's just cut this off, let's try to end it, but of course I couldn't come up with anything that just wouldn't add to the terrible spectacle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[03:40:00]

PLEITGEN: Beautiful shot there of the water jet here on Lake Geneva. One of the things I've learned since coming here is to never call that thing a fountain. That is the Jet D'Eau, the Water jet as we view Lake Geneva, the venue of course, for that very historic summit that is set to kick off very, very soon.

Now, in several hours, Joe Biden will meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. But U.S. officials say they have absolutely no intention of giving him a platform like he had during the 2018 summit with then President Donald Trump. Of course, that took place in Helsinki. A top Russia adviser to the Trump administration, Fiona Hill told CNN she was so alarmed during that now infamous press conference that she was even thinking of faking a medical emergency to make it all stop. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: First of all, I looked around to see if there is a fire alarm, but we were in a rather grand building attached to the presidential palace of the finish presidents who lent it to us for the occasion, and I couldn't see anything that resemble to a fire alarm. You know, look, I had exactly the same feeling that Deborah Birx had during the infamous press conference where there was the suggestion by President Trump about injecting bleach, you know, to counteract the coronavirus.

It was one of those moments where it was mortifying frankly and humiliating for the country. I just thought let's just cut this off and let's try to end. But of course, I could not come up with anything that just wouldn't add to the terrible spectacle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: Fiona Hill, of course, one of the most knowledgeable people in the world about Russia probably right now at this point in time. She is one of several aides and advisers who had been helping President Biden prepare for the summit with Vladimir Putin. And officials say that U.S. President has been preparing for Vladimir Putin's tactics in an effort to avoid the pitfalls of his predecessors and other world leaders which they have faced. Here is Brian Todd with more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Helsinki, July 16th, 2018. It was well into their news conference when Vladimir Putin showed just how good he was at playing Donald Trump, gifting the president a custom soccer ball in front of the media.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Mister President, I will give this ball to you, and now the ball is in your court.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Thank you very much.

TODD: When the ball was in his court, Trump, in the minds of many, dropped it. He inexplicably let Putin off the hook for Russia's 2016 election meddling.

TRUMP: I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.

TODD: Trump's intelligence leaders had repeatedly told him that Russia had aggressively tried to interfere in the 2016 vote at Putin's direction, but Trump seemed cowed by the former KGB lieutenant colonel.

TRUMP: People came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think its Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be.

MASHA GESSEN, PUTIN BIOGRAPHER: That looked pretty awful. And you know, we could see sort of the master liar next to this spontaneous not terribly experienced public liar.

[03:45:11]

TODD: Putin is a master at playing mind games during these meetings. From his own imposing body language, to making his counterpart cringe. In 2007, knowing German Chancellor Angela Merkel was terrified of dogs, Putin brought his huge black Labrador Connie into the room. Putin smirked. Merkel put on a brave face.

ANNETTE HEUSER, OTTO BEISHEIM FOUNDATION: She did not blink, because she understands the Russian mindset. She knows that the Russians, and in this case Putin, wanted to play Russian chess with her, which means the person who blinks the first has lost.

TODD: President Biden now seems determined not to blink with Vladimir Putin in Geneva. Sources tell CNN, Biden has spent long hours over several days huddling with his top national security officials and aids in preparation, meeting with Russia experts from think tanks. Experts tell us however well Biden prepares, Putin will still tweak him. JAMES GOLDGEIER, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: He's going to try to

provoke Biden on the issues that are bedeviling American society, the polarization, the issues of systemic racism, the insurrection on the Capitol on January 6th.

TODD: What does Biden need to do to not get knocked off balance by Putin? One expert says don't back down on the issue of recent cyber- attacks blamed on Russia.

EVELYN FARKAS, MSNBC NATIONAL SECURITY, FORMER DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA: The best that, you know, President Biden can do is telegraph that he is full of resolve, you know, that his government is resolved to respond if the Russians continue, that there will be consequences.

TODD: Biden's dilemma, one analyst told us, is that he is seeking a stable, predictable relationship with the Kremlin so that he can concentrate on countering China. And Vladimir Putin, the analyst said, is determined to be just the opposite of stable and predictable. He will likely poke and prod Biden and try to create more political division in America for the duration of Biden's term. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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PLEITGEN: In an effort to create that more predictable and more stable relationship with Russia, obviously this summit really has a broad agenda that we got in sort of a little bit of an insight to. There is a wide array of topics that these two leaders are set to talk about today. Of course, Ukraine most probably will be on the agenda, cyber is really one of the big topics where there is large disagreement between the U.S. and Russia.

But there are also some areas where some believe that there could be a shared or mutual interest at least. Neither these two countries have an interest for instance in Afghanistan descending into chaos once those U.S. forces are fully withdrawn. Generally, the Middle East will be a topic, Korean peninsula will also be topic as well.

The meeting right now is set to last between four and five hours. However there is a lot of flexibility also built in in case the two leaders do come to some sort of conclusion or feel that they are getting closer to one another's position. They can make this take longer and really take their time to try and hammer out what most certainly would be a defining moment of the relations between the United States and Russia going forward, Rosemary. And of course, we are going to be around here to cover it all. And we are going to keep our eye on it.

CHURCH (on camera): Yes. We know you shall. And we will be back to you at the top of the hour. Thank you so much, Fred. I appreciate it.

Well, still to come, China is preparing to return to the final frontier. The country's first manned spaceflight in nearly five years is set to launch this week. Why now? Those details in a live report from Beijing, that's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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CHURCH: Well, meet China's newest team of space farers. Beijing is sending three astronauts up in China's first human spaceflight and about five years. The crew is scheduled to launch Thursday morning, and they will orbit the earth for a three month stay as they work on China's space station. It is the third of nearly a dozen missions needed to get the station complete by 2022. So, let's bring in Steven Jiang, he joins us live from Beijing. Good to see you Steven, so, what is the significance of the timing of this mission?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN PRODUCER (on camera): Rosemary, this is a major step realizing China's increasingly ambitious space goals as President Xi Jinping has put it. China will eventually become quote and quote, a great power in space. And many would argue there already a dominating force in space given this mission actually comes on the (inaudible) of two recent successful launches and rovers. Both to the moon and to Mars.

As we mentioned, this mission is the third launch in a series of 11 missions aimed at building the country's first space station. In late April, they have launched the core module of the space station. And a few weeks ago, they launched a cargo spacecraft carrying supplies for the three astronauts to dock the module.

And these three men, once they are in space, they are going to spend about three months. They're conducting two lengthy spacewalks to install equipment on the space station. Now, all of these men are veterans in the China space program, and one of the main reasons they are building their own space station of course, is they had long been excluded from the International Space Station. Because in 2011, the U.S. Congress actually passed a law to ban NASA from cooperating with the Chinese out of national security concerns, because critics had long linked to China's space program to its rising military ambitions.

[03:55:05]

And indeed, when you look at these three astronauts, they are all officers and pilots from the People's Liberation Army. And the commander (inaudible), actually holds the rank of a major general, but interestingly, Rosemary, we have interviewed him back in 2015, he said one of his favorite movies was Gravity. And in that movie, the American astronaut was actually saved actually by the Chinese. But given the rising tensions that probably can only exist in Hollywood movies now, Rosemary.

CHURCH: It appears that way. Steven Jiang joining us live from Beijing, many thanks.

And thank you for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. Up next, Fred Pleitgen is live in Geneva with special coverage of the summit between the U.S. and Russian president's due to begin in less than 3.5 hours from now. We are back in just a moment.

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